UK Anglican priest jailed for sex abuse

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The Herald Sun (Australia)

AAP

May 21, 2013 3:29AM

A RETIRED Church of England priest has been jailed for 10 years after a jury found him guilty of 36 separate sex offences against children in the 1960s and 1970s.

Prosecutors said Gordon Rideout, 74, abused his position of trust and assaulted children he met over the years. A jury found him guilty of 34 counts of indecent assault and two counts of attempted rape on 16 boys and girls in the southeastern English counties of Hampshire and Sussex between 1962 and 1973.

Most of the 36 offences related to his work as an assistant curate at St Mary’s Church in Crawley, 45km south of London, when he would visit a children’s home nearby. The home has since closed.

“A number of his victims attempted to speak out about what Rideout was doing, but tragically at the time of the offences, a child’s word was not believed,” said Nigel Pilkington, a regional official of the Crown Prosecution Service.

“Those who were brave enough to say anything were subjected to brutal beatings. Some of his victims told police in interviews that it simply ‘wasn’t worth complaining’ because of the punishment they would receive in return.”

Rideout was arrested in March 2012 and charged five months later. He denied all the charges.

He was cleared of one count of indecent assault on a boy.

Another retired Church of England priest who worked in the same area, 71-year-old Robert Coles, was jailed for eight years in February for sex offences against young boys. His offences were not linked to Rideout’s.

1 Response to UK Anglican priest jailed for sex abuse

  1. Sylvia says:

    I posted a couple of articles on this Gordon Rideout last Spring when he was arrested last March and charged five months later. Here we are, less than one year after charges were laid, and he has been tried, convicted and sentenced. A reminder that it can be done in a more expeditious manner than happens in many corners of Canada.

    As for Rideout, a reminder that the cover-ups and protection of child molesters is pervasive world-wide. Please be assured that is not in any way excusing the Catholic Church, but rather a reminder of the magnitude of what we are fighting. As far as their presence of these predators in the priesthood goes, that’s the last place any child molester should ever be given or find safe haven. That, sad to say, is not the way it’s been going.

    Truth be told, men who prey on children and the vulnerable should not be given safe have anywhere, should they?

    How has society come to this? Statutes of limitation in numerous countries which protect child molesters A judiciary in many countries which treats these self-serving predators with kid gloves.

    Perhaps if we reach the point where ALL these predators are defrocked and thereby out of the priesthood in the Catholic Church there will be a ripple effect whereby governments will feel obliged to enact legislation which will, as far as is humanly possible, protect children and young people from sexual predators, and will properly reflect the abhorrence with which every civilized society should view the abuse of the child and the one who abuses?

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