O'Brien accused of sex assault while in office as Cardinal

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the disgraced former head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, has been accused of sexually assaulting a priest when he was already a Cardinal.

He is alleged to have attempted to grope the man in Rome on the night of a drinks party to celebrate becoming a "prince of the Church" in October 2003, attended by a raft of bishops and dignitaries.

It is the first allegation to relate directly to his time as a Cardinal and the first suggestion that his sexual misconduct extended to the centre of the Catholic Church.

It follows an admission by the Cardinal that he was guilty of sexual misconduct, with his personal standards falling below those expected of him "as a priest, archbishop and cardinal".

His accuser, a priest now based in London, is said to have complained to the Vatican last year, prompting his departure as leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, months before separate allegations relating to the 1980s came to light.

Cardinal O'Brien, who turns 75 on Sunday, announced last November that he would be stepping down as leader of the Scottish Catholic Bishops Conference and signalled that he was making plans for retirement.

At the time, his decision was put down to a severe gout condition which left him in hospital.

But it was reported earlier this month that he had secretly been summoned to Rome after the priest who alleges he was abused there complained directly to the Vatican.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the head of the Vatican's bishops department, is said to have overseen the case.

It led to accusations that the authorities in Rome were trying to orchestrate a "cover-up", sending the Cardinal quietly into retirement without scandal.

But when four other priests came forward last month the case was referred directly to Pope Benedict.

In one of the last acts of his pontificate, he effectively sacked Cardinal O'Brien by ordering that his resignation, already submitted, would be accepted with immediate effect.

Pope Francis, elected last Wednesday, will now have to decide whether or not to strip him of his position as a Cardinal, one of only a handful of such cases in the last 200 years.

Doing so would enable the Pope to send out a strong signal that he plans to clamp down on misconduct at the very top of the Church.

The latest details came to light in a report in the Scottish newspaper, The Herald, which said that the alleged assault took place at the Scots College in Rome, where he was staying for the consistory at which he was made a Cardinal by Pope John Paul II.

No-one from the college was available for comment yesterday.

The Scottish Bishops Conference said that all cases involving Cardinal O'Brien had been passed straight to the Vatican.

"A number of complaints have been passed directly to the Vatican, the detail and nature of them is not known to the Bishops' Conference of Scotland," a spokesman said.

Cardinal O'Brien has left Scotland and was unavailable for comment.

During his time as leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland he became known as one of the most vehement opponents of gay marriage, which he said would lead to "further degeneration of society into immorality."

Last year he was voted "bigot of the year" by Stonewall, the gay rights group.

But following his admission, Peter Tatchell said he "pitied" Cardinal O'Brien who he said was obviously suffering from "self-loathing and deeply repressed homosexual desires".