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Retired priest admits child abuse | Retired priest admits child abuse |
(39 minutes later) | |
A retired vicar has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two boys when he was at a church in Northamptonshire. | A retired vicar has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two boys when he was at a church in Northamptonshire. |
Collin Pritchard, 64, now living in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, admitted seven sex offences, six of which were committed against one boy. | Collin Pritchard, 64, now living in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, admitted seven sex offences, six of which were committed against one boy. |
The offences took place while he was parish priest at St Andrew's Church in Wellingborough in the 1970s and 80s. | |
At Northampton Crown Court, Pritchard was jailed for five years. The judge said he had "betrayed his calling". | |
"It was the most appalling breach of trust," Judge Christopher Metcalf told him, as he passed sentence. | |
"You took advantage of young boys who wanted to involve themselves in your church." | |
Sharing a bed | |
The disgraced clergyman was prosecuted after one off his victims, now aged 39, decided to tell the police what had happened to him. | |
Anne Cotcher QC, prosecuting, said the father felt he could not allow his own son to attend a Church of England school such was his dislike of the institution. | |
The court heard another Church of England vicar, named in court as Roy Cotton, had been involved in the offences but died in 2006 two weeks before Pritchard's arrest. | |
Miss Cotcher said the boy did odd jobs around the church and this provided Pritchard with the opportunity to invite him back to the vicarage and take him on trips. | |
Grooming had started with kissing and fondling and developed to them sharing a bed together, the court heard. | |
Feelings of guilt | |
The prosecutor said Pritchard would tell the boy that they had a special relationship which others would not understand. | |
After finally finding the courage to tell others what had happened to him police launched an investigation and traced a second victim. | |
Judge Metcalf was told this victim, now 42, had been regularly sexually abused by Cotton, the court heard. | |
Miss Cotcher said both victims had suffered feelings of guilt and shame because of what had happened to them during their childhoods. |