A Fife priest has been suspended over child sex abuse allegations.
The Scottish Catholic Church has asked the Vatican to look into claims dating back more than 30 years against Father Thomas Mullen, of Our Lady of Lourdes in Dunfermline.
A police investigation was launched and the priest was arrested after two people alleged they had been molested by him.
However, despite prosecutors deciding not to proceed with the case because too much time had passed between the alleged offences, the Catholic Church considers the claims so serious it is conducting its own investigation.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh told The Courier: ”Father Thomas Mullen was placed on administrative leave in 2011 while allegations against him were investigated by Fife Police.”
He added: ”Father Mullen has been removed from parish ministry pending the results of a Church investigation which has been forwarded to Rome for advice and judgment.”
Fife Police investigated Father Mullen over the two separate sets of allegations one from the late 1970s and one from the early 1990s. A report was sent to the procurator fiscal.
It is understood prosecutors tried to use the Moorov doctrine to establish a case a legal mechanism that applies where two or more separate offences are closely connected in time and circumstances.
Where it applies, the evidence of the individual victims is held to corroborate each other so that the accused can be convicted of all the charges.
However, the Crown Office decided it could not proceed using Moorov because of the time between the alleged crimes.
It is understood the case will remain open for review if other complainers come forward or new evidence emerges.
A Fife Constabulary spokesman said: ”A 71-year-old man was arrested and charged in 2011 and a report was sent to the procurator fiscal.”
A Crown Office spokesman said: ”The procurator fiscal at Dunfermline received a report concerning a 71-year-old male in connection with alleged incidents between January 1976 and October 1993.
”The case remains under the consideration of the procurator fiscal.”
Father Mullen was born in Cowdenbeath in 1939 and educated at St Columba’s High School Cowdenbeath and St Patrick’s College Drygrange.
He was ordained in his home parish of Our Lady and St Bride at the age of 38 in 1977.
His first parish was St Mary’s Bathgate, where he was sent as assistant priest from 1977 until 1985.
He then went to St Patrick’s in Kilsyth, Lanarkshire, before moving to St Kenneth’s Lochore in Glencraig, Fife, in 1987 and then on to Our Lady of Lourdes in Dunfermline.
Father Mullen could not be contacted by The Courier for comment.