A WELL-KNOWN furniture dealer is standing trial over allegations that he attempted to halt a historical abuse investigation into a friend by visiting the mother of the complainant in an effort to have the claims withdrawn.
David Richard Hick (70) denies one count of attempting to pervert the course of justice in the case against Catholic priest.
Father Piotr Glas, who was being investigated for alleged sexual offences against a child.
Fr Glas was later convicted of the charges but has since successfully appealed his conviction, and will be retried.
Setting out the case in front of two Jurats yesterday, Crown Advocate Carla Carvalho said that Mr Hick had visited the complainant’s mother at her home twice. Mr Hick and Fr Glas spoke on the phone for 37 minutes before Mr Hick went to see the alleged victim’s mother, the court heard.
The mother gave evidence to describe Mr Hick’s visits, saying that his attitude changed when he started talking about Fr Glas.
“It just seemed like a general catch-up,” she said. “He was quiet for a moment and said ‘I have come with a purpose’.
“He said that he had spoken to Fr Piotr that morning [and that] Fr Piotr was very distressed.
“I got a bit worried, obviously, and I just said I’ve not been in contact with Fr Piotr for a long time.”
Mr Hick allegedly seemed “agitated” and “upset” when he asked the woman about Fr Glas. His tone “had changed since the general chit-chat; it was much firmer”, the woman said.
She added that she knew she was not supposed to talk about the allegations and that she did not answer Mr Hick’s questions.
“I was obviously quite shocked at what I was hearing [and finding] that [my child’s] anonymity had been broken to a member of the public,” she said.
Mr Hick allegedly told her: “This has to be stopped. It’s not what God would have wanted.” He then repeated: “It’s got to be sorted out; it’s got to be stopped before it goes any further.”
The mother said she would not speak to her child.
“I didn’t know how much he knew. I really felt unsure of how to respond,” she said. Mr Hick asked for the woman’s number, which she gave him.
Speaking about Mr Hick, the woman told the court: “He sat back in his chair and put his hands back to his temple and said ‘I will stand by him, this is not right’,”.
After the visit, the child’s mother said she felt “sad” that Mr Hick had become involved and “angry” that the priest had divulged details of the case.
“The conversation was calm. I was not calm,” she said. “It was really quite a distressing situation.”
On a second visit, the woman said she was on a call when she heard Mr Hick trying to enter her house. She went to meet him outside and Mr Hick said he had lost the number.
He was “determined” that she should give him her number again, the woman said, and left her feeling “on the spot” and “quite anxious”.
Advocate Mark Boothman, defending, said Mr Hick had not tried to convince the woman to interfere with the investigation, though Mr Hick did say in a statement to the police that he had visited her.
“Impulsively, and I now realise irrationally, I went to the [family]’s house,” he told the police, adding that his reaction was “something I should have stopped and thought about”.
Mr Hick had previously described Fr Glas as “a good and kind person” and said they had been friends for a long time, though they had lost touch after Fr Glas left the Island. When they had spoken on the phone, Mr Hick said the priest had seemed “very distressed”.
Commissioner Patricia Lees is presiding with Jurats Joanne Kim Averty and Donald Christopher Gardener.
