UK NEWS
VICAR GETS 5 1/2 YEARS FOR MOLESTING BOYS
Reverend David Smith arrives at court
By Jo Willey
THE Church of England was last night accused of covering up child sex crimes for the second time in a week after a vicar was jailed for molesting a string of boys.
David Smith was given a five-and-a-half-year sentence after being found guilty of abusing youngsters over three decades.
During his trial it emerged that Church leaders were twice warned Smith, 52, had allegedly been attacking the boys. But nothing was done and he continued to work with children.
Distraught parents were never even told that Smith, who regularly invited boys to the vicarage, had once been investigated in the early 1980s amid claims he was a child pervert.
Last week it emerged that choirmaster Peter Halliday, 61, had escaped justice for 17 years because officials did not report him. He was jailed for 30 months after pleading guilty to 10 counts of indecent assault.
The Church had allowed him to leave quietly on condition he had no more contact with children – and police were never informed.
Fears were first raised about ex-teacher Smith when a former schoolboy, who claimed to have been a victim in the 1970s, saw him in 2001 giving a speech about the September 11 attacks. The boy was shocked to see his tormentor from almost 25 years before was now a vicar and wrote to the Church with his concerns.
The then Bishop of Bath and Wells, Jim Thompson, assured him the problem had “effectively been dealt with”. Yet Smith was still working with children and grooming and molesting boys. His abuse began when he was appointed assistant housemaster at the Douai Abbey monastic boarding school in Berkshire in 1975.
During his year there he attacked three 13-year-old boys after inviting them into his quarters.
Smith left the school and went on to form a close relationship with another boy of 12 after being appointed as curate in the parish of Wotton-under-Edge, Glos, in 1981.
He lent the child money and allegedly invited him to the vicarage and abused him. He then went on to abuse three more boys after becoming vicar at St John’s in Clevedon in 1993.
Smith visited schools, asking pupils if they would like to join the choir and gaining their trust by inviting them to the vicarage to do homework, or by taking them on trips. He told them he “loved” them and kissed one on the lips. He later applied “emotional pressure” to one after the boy tried to stop seeing him.
His abuse only came to light when his final victim, a 13-year-old altar boy who wanted to be a priest, told a church member what had happened.
Smith denied all the allegations and claimed the boys were lying.
But yesterday a jury at Bristol Crown Court found him guilty of 10 charges of indecent assault, one sexual assault of a child under 13 and one of sexual activities with a child under 16. The attacks, on six boys, happened between 1976 and 2005.
A charge concerning the boy of 12 in 1981 was dropped on a technicality at his recent trial. The present Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Rt Rev Peter Price, apologised to the victims and said steps had been taken to ensure it would not happen again.
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