Vicar 'misused power and authority' to sexually abuse choirboy
manchestereveningnews.co.ukJurors have unanimously found a North West vicar guilty of sexually abusing a choirboy during the 1970s. John Roberts, now 89, faced five counts of indecent assault.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Roberts was serving as a priest at St Peter's Church, in St Helens, at the time. He was said to have attempted to grope the boy in the vicarage and during a trip away.
Jurors were told of a "repeated pattern of abuse" from Roberts against the boy, the Liverpool Echo reports. Roberts was accused of "misusing the power and authority of his position to carry out acts of sexual abuse". READ MORE: Coronation Street icon Helen Worth quits soap as she bows out after 50 years as Gail Platt Steven Ball previously told a jury of four men and eight women during the prosecution's opening last week that the complainant, aged between 10 and 13 at the time of Roberts' offending, was said to have been "in awe" of him when he arrived as the new vicar.
He described Roberts as having a "posh accent" and a "dynamic and engaging personality". The boy joined the choir following a recruitment drive by the vicar and they they latercame into contact on "many occasions", including on one when the schoolboy was invited into the rectory alone.
Read more on manchestereveningnews.co.uk