A DONEGAL based priest currently in custody on a charge of attempted sexual communication with a child has been released into police custody for further questioning.

Fr Eddie Gallagher, 56, of Orchard Park in Lifford, is charged with attempted sexual communication with a child on dates between 2 April and 17 April of this year.

He appeared at Londonderry Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, where a police inspector said they wanted to to take him back into custody for three days to question him about seven possible new offences, the BBC has reported.

There was no objection from the priest’s defence team, and District Judge Conor Heaney released him into police custody for a period of three days.

Fr Gallagher, the curate for the Camus, Clonleigh and Leckpatrick parishes, previously served as parish priest in Greencastle in Tyrone.

His arrest and charge follows a confrontation by ‘paedophile hunters’ outside a Derry hotel in April, which saw a number of allegations put to him.