Locations
Cross-In-Hand, Heathfield, TN21
Description
A ROMAN Catholic priest has been jailed for sexual offences against a teenage boy he met in church.
Father Anthony White has been convicted of two counts of indecent assault and one of buggery against the boy.
The offences happened in the early 1990s at an address where White was living in Horsham while he was an assistant priest at St John's Church.
The 64-year-old was sentenced to ten years and six months in prison for the sexual assault.
White, now of Cross-In-Hand, Heathfield, was also given five years for each offence of indecent assault, to run concurrently.
He will serve two thirds of his sentence in prison.
Detective Constable Yvonne Daddow said: "White got to know the boy when he and his family attended the church.
“He gradually gained their confidence and the boy started to visit the priest's address in Horsham on the pretext of doing some jobs around the house.
“However on the first occasion White plied the boy with drink and then raped him. On further occasions he also committed sexual assaults on the teenager.
"The victim kept these terrible experience to himself for nearly 30 years and they have had a very serious impact on his mental health and wellbeing all that time.
“Only when watching a TV documentary about unrelated cases of misconduct by priests did he feel able to come forward and disclose what had happened to him.”
He has been supported by specially trained officers and officers have had full co-operation from church authorities throughout the investigation, police said.
“I would like to thank the witnesses for their time in coming forward to support the police in this investigation,” Detective Constable Daddow added.
"We will always investigate such cases and provide support to victims, seeking justice wherever possible no matter how long ago the events are said to have happened."
The prosecution followed an investigation by detectives from the West Sussex Safeguarding Investigations Unit after a report was received by police for the first time in 2020.