By Rob Pattinson
The Journal
April 5, 2011
http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2011/04/05/newcastle-church-official-in-court-for-sex-charges-61634-28458992/
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| Colin James Adams verger at Newcastle's St Nicholas Cathedral |
ONE of the region's top church officials singled out a young altar server for sexual abuse, a court heard yesterday.
Colin James Adams, verger at Newcastle's St Nicholas Cathedral, was married with three young children and living in a tied church cottage in Wales at the time offences are said to have been committed in the 1990s.
When he was arrested in January 2010 and questioned about the claims, he said he had been a mentor to the boy and denied there had ever been any sexual activity between them.
In a trial expected to last a week, at Cardiff Crown Court, the 58-year-old has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of indecent assault and one of buggery.
Susan Ferrier, prosecuting, told the court: "The boy was young and vulnerable and Colin James Adams spotted him and targeted him.
"He encouraged the teenager to spend time with him, took him on trips and forged a close relationship with him. It was manipulation and grooming of a young lad so that he could be used sexually."
Ms Ferrier said the alleged victim had lived with his dreadful memories for years before finally finding the courage to make a complaint to the police.
"In cases of this nature that is not unusual," she told the jury.
"It is embarrassing to have to talk about such matters."
Adams was working for the Llandaff diocese at the time of the alleged offences, which the court heard had taken him to other churches outside Cardiff.
The complainant, now a man in his 30's, said that was how he first met the verger who befriended him.
The jury were shown a video film of his interview with a specially trained police officer, which was made last year.
In it he alleges he was first assaulted on a visit to London.
"It was in a quiet area of Southwark Cathedral" he said.
"He ran his finger down my back then put his hand down my trousers, trying to touch me.
"What sticks in my mind is the smell of church flowers and as he leaned forward I could feel the bristles of his beard on my neck.
"He said it was important to be close in a friendship."
The witness alleged that when he first became a server, the verger would turn up earlier and earlier.
He said: "He would put his arms around me to give me a thank you hug for all I did and started giving me little things – books and things to stimulate my interest.
"There would be a little note directing me to certain paragraphs and he would send me postcards.
"He was trying to encourage me to have more and more contact.
"In Llandaff (Cathedral), we would have to go under the organ loft.
"I would go first and it would be a tight squeeze.
"Every chance he had he would try to get closer – feeling and groping me. He asked me to go on trips, saying he could take children for £1 on his family railcard and he started to get more touchy-feely and then more physical."
The witness claimed Adams finally had sexual intercourse with him.
After that he said, he distanced himself from the church.
Ms Ferrier told the jury: "None of the defendant's advances were welcome – the boy trusted him and knew little of the world at the time.
"It ended with forceful, degrading acts on the steps of a vestry."
Adams who now lives at St Nicholas Churchyard, Newcastle, handed a prepared statement to police following his arrest.
In it, Ms Ferrier said, he admitted knowing the boy and acting as his mentor.
She added: "He declined to answer any more questions but said he was homosexual.
"It is not suggested by the prosecution, that because somebody is homosexual it makes it more likely they are going to commit offences of this type."
The trial continues.
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