A WITNESS giving evidence against a former Bury priest accused of sexually abusing him more than 15 years ago hit out at him during an emotional court appearance.

He told the priest: "God help you in the afterlife".

John McCollough, aged 63, who now lives in Leigh-on-Sea, near Southend, is standing trial at Bolton Crown Court, charged with indecently assaulting two boy parishioners during his time as an Anglican rector at Christ the King with Holy Trinity Church in Bury.

McCollough was rector at the Bury Church during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He later left the Anglican Church and became a Catholic priest.

His first alleged victim made two emotional outbursts as he gave evidence in court yesterday.

The man, now in his late 20s, broke down in tears as he took the oath before the jury. He turned to the priest and said: "Why, why, that's all I want to know, why?

"You don't know what you've done to me and how much I've lost, you don't, and you can just stand there and look at me like that."

The man has alleged he was abused by the priest on numerous occasions in the vicarage from the age of about 11 until he was 14.

The man's second outburst came when prosecutor Maurice Greene asked him to recount the first time he recalled being indecently assaulted.

The alleged victim again turned to the priest and said: "You sat me on your knee, didn't you?"

He swore and went on to say: "People like you should not even be in a church . . . You're a man of the cloth, God help you in the afterlife."

The jury heard that the priest - whose High Church ministered to both a Catholic and Protestant congregation - also allegedly indecently assaulted the witness on a pilgrimage to Lourdes.

The second alleged victim was aged between eight and 11 at the time. He has not yet given evidence.

McCollough, of Lymington Avenue, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, denies 11 charges of indecent assault and one charge of gross indecency between 1986 and 1992.

The case continues today.