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  Buckfast Monk Given Ten Years Jail for Abusing Boys

Scotsman
August 31, 2007

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1391722007

A Monk from the abbey where Buckfast wine is made has been jailed for ten years for sexually abusing boys over 20 years.

Paul Couch, 61, carried out the assaults on six boys while he was a teacher at the Buckfast Abbey School in Devon.

A court heard that Couch, who was known as Father Benedict, took advantage of his trusted position as a priest and monk to molest the boys while taking them on sailing trips and playing with a model railway.

Couch was a monk and English teacher at Buckfast Abbey at Buckfastleigh, South Devon until it closed in 1994. He also spent two spells as a Roman Catholic chaplain in the Royal Navy.

He was found guilty of two serious sexual offences and 11 indecent assaults and jailed for a total of ten years and nine months at Exeter Crown Court. He was cleared of four indecent assaults.

Judge Paul Darlow told him: "This was a gross breach of the trust reposed in you."

 
 

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