The priest who claimed he had an affair with Angelika Kluk was a liar and a sex pest, a parishioner told the murder trial yesterday.

Father Gerry Nugent, 63, said in his evidence at the High Court in Edinburgh he didn't know about the hole in the floor of his church where the Polish student's body was found.

The former parish priest also said he had a sexual relationship with parishioner Sarah Howie - before back-tracking and telling the trial he meant only intimacy but not sexual intercourse.

Yesterday mother-of-two Mrs Howie, 45, of Shaftsbury Street, Shawlands, Glasgow, told jurors that the priest was wrong on both counts.

When advocate-depute Dorothy Bain, prosecuting, told Mrs Howie that Fr Nugent said he had had a sexual relationship with her she responded angrily.

"No he didn't, no he didn't," she said. "No sexual relationship with me whatsoever."

But she continued: "He chased me if you like, he harassed me but we never had any sexual relationship whatsoever."

Earlier, the trial was told that when singer and musician Mrs Howie was tuning her guitar, Fr Nugent put his hand on her rear and was told to "f*** off".

Mrs Howie was not questioned about the alleged incident yesterday. She claimed that the priest knew seven or eight years ago about the trap door in the floor which, last September, became the entrance to Ms Kluk's temporary tomb.

"The trap door was quite visible. There was no carpet on the floor then. It was very visible. It did not take Einstein to work out where it was."

Mrs Howie, who was married in St Patrick's and has been a regular worshipper there for 14 or 15 years, described how she and a friend went exploring.

She described how she and the other woman were kneeling at the trap door when Fr Nugent approached and dismissed their efforts with the remark "Oh, what are you like."

Mrs Howie continued: "He says to me in a joking manner Oh, did you find any bodies?' and we laughed and said Oh, no, nothing like that.'"

The exploration happened about seven or eight years ago, she insisted, just after Fr Nugent came to St Patrick's.