Priest jailed for abusing boys

2008-10-01 17:32

London - A priest who abused boys for more than two decades at a Catholic school in Manchester was jailed for six years on Wednesday.

William Green, 67, admitted 27 counts of sexual abuse on boys aged between nine and 16 dating back to the 1960s, police said.

Most of the offences were committed at St Bede's College, in Alexandra Park in south Manchester, where he repeatedly abused pupils whilst working as a teacher there from 1973 to 1991, the court heard.

He also admitted assaulting a boy at St Margaret Mary's Primary School in New Moston where he worked as a PE teacher in the 1960s.

Detectives said in each case he would make excuses to get the boys on their own either in his room or in the church dormitory where he indecently assaulted them.

Green pleaded guilty to the charges at an earlier hearing at Manchester Crown Court.

Sentencing him on Wednesday, judge Justice Goldstone said the effect of the abuse had lasted years and in some cases still remained, the Press Association reported.

"These boys were vulnerable and they were groomed by you for the purposes of your own sexual gratification," the judge said.

"You abused them in the school and on church-related activities.

"You believed that because of your position as a priest and teacher they could not or would not say no, and most of the time of course they did not, and they acquiesced."

Police said they were first notified about Green in 2007 by a victim who he had abused in the 1970s.

"Thanks to the courage of the victims who were prepared to come forward after years of living with the knowledge they had been abused, we have been able to bring Green to justice," said Superintendent Nadeem Butt.

"He repeatedly abused his position of trust and indecently assaulted a number of young boys, leaving them with emotional scars they will carry for the rest of their lives."

After leaving St Bede's, Green took up a priesthood at the Holy Family Roman Catholic Church in Wigan, but police said there was no evidence of any abuse while he was in this position.

- Reuters