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Friday 06.11.2015 thedistrictpost.co.uk
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Ex-priest jailed for sex crimes phil dennett
News Editor
A retired Church of England priest from West Sussex has started a six and a half years jail sentence for sexual offences against four young men in the 1970s and 1980s. And police have released a copy of a letter which they say shows that a bishop knew that the priest was involved in improper behaviour during his employment. Vickery House, 69, of Brighton Road, Handcross, near Horsham, was sentenced at the Old Bailey for five offences on Thursday of last week having been convicted the previous Tuesday after a 12-day trial. He had strongly denied the charges, and was found not guilty of three more. He was found guilty of two offences against a boy then aged 14 and 15 in Devon between 1970 and 1971; one offence in East Sussex between 1983 and 1985, was against another man; one offence was against a man in East Sussex in 1981; and one offence was against another man in East Sussex in 1985. He was found not guilty of one offence in Devon against the second
victim and of one offence against each of two other men, in East Sussex and in London. Detective Inspector Jez Prior of Sussex Police said: "This complex investigation began when we received information from the Church of England in May 2012, concerning one of the victims who he has been found guilty of assaulting. The others came forward during the investigation. "The case was about power that House, who was a priest when all these offences were committed, exercised while he was responsible for ministering to their spiritual needs, and it was about opportunism, as he took advantage of situations in which to sexually assault them. "Our investigation into House began in May 2012 when we followed up information we received from the Church of England about Bishop Peter Ball. This led us to the first of House's victims, three others came forward as a result of publicity about our investigation later that year, and the other victim was traced by police as a result of the investigation. "Ball was sentenced to 32 months imprisonment at the Old Bailey on October 7 as a result of our investigation of his offending. "We had complete co-operation from the Church of England throughout this investigation.
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"During the trial the Court heard about a letter written by a senior member of the clergy to a young man in April 1984, expressing concern about 'the affair you were subjected to with Vick'. Now that the trial has
finished we can confirm that the senior clergy member was Bishop Peter Ball. "The letter was handed to us, by the person who received it in 1984, when he contacted us in 2012 having seen
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publicity about our investigation. "This letter featured in one of the indictments of indecent assault over which House was found not guilty.” Continued on page 2
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