By Linda Fort
Reading Evening Post
March 11, 2008
http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/s/2023521_expriest_is_guilty_of_sexual_assaults
A priest who served at churches in Reading is facing jail for sexually abusing two teenagers in the 1980s.
A jury at Southampton Crown Court found Brian Rutledge, 69, guilty on Friday of a serious sexual assault on a boy of 17.
He also admitted sexually assaulting the victim in the same incident after getting into his bed.
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| Brian Rutledge |
Rutledge, who now lives in Waldegrave Close, Weston, in Hampshire, was an assistant priest at English Martyrs Church in Liebenrood Road, West Reading, between 1970 and 1971 and parish priest at St John Bosco Church in Western Avenue, Woodley, for seven years from 1983.
The court heard the charges followed an incident after the teenager had been invited to Rutledge's bungalow in 1981 in Park Place Pastoral Centre in Wickham, Hampshire.
The retired Catholic priest had also admitted sexually abusing another youth also in the mid-1980s, although details of that incident were not revealed in court and the jurors were unaware of it when they came to their verdict.
Judge Christopher Leigh said he would not sentence Rutledge without a pre-sentence report and a psychiatric report.
He also directed that he wanted a report from the Catholic Church about what plans they had for Rutledge after he is released from jail.
The pensioner was released on bail on condition he lives at an address in Bournemouth and reports to police three times a week until he is sentenced on April 28.
Bishop Crispian Hollis of the Diocese of Portsmouth said: "I am aware that Brian Rutledge has been convicted of serious criminal charges at Southampton Crown Court.
"The conviction of a priest in these circumstances is obviously a matter of great sadness.
"It is a betrayal of trust and an abuse of the role of a priest. I condemn his actions without hesitation.
"I want to record my outright condemnation of the abuse of children by any adult. Such abuse is even more abhorrent when it is at the hands of a priest.
"I apologise publicly for the actions of Brian Rutledge. He will never again serve as a priest.
"The case was brought to the attention of the police by the Diocese as a result of our Child Protection procedures. We have co-operated with them fully throughout the investigation."
The conviction was the result of a nationwide investigation launched in December 2005 by Hampshire police following an allegation of historic sex abuse.
Rutledge officiated at several Hampshire and Berkshire churches and was a founder of the Woodley Saints' Football Club.
He was cleared in 2004 of two charges involving indecent assault and indecency with a boy in the late 1970s while working at a church in Aldershot.
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