Church Organist Sexually Abused Two Girls, Court Hears

By Steven Morris
The Guardian
March 6, 2012

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/06/church-organist-two-girls-court

Nigel Parkin, who denies the allegations of sexual assault, leaving Taunton crown court.

Nigel Parkin, former organist at church in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, denies charges of rape and sexual assault

A former church organist sexually abused two young girls over a 10-year period, a court has heard. Nigel Parkin, 56, allegedly befriended both girls and warned them they would not be believed if they told anyone what he had done.

Married Parkin, from Somerset, is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting and raping one girl, from the age of nine until she was 16. He allegedly indecently assaulted a second girl on two occasions when she was aged between 11 and 13.

Taunton crown court heard that neither of the girls had told anyone about the alleged abuse at the time. Police were only alerted when the younger girl, now aged 19, confided in her headteacher in August 2010.

Parkin, a former organist at St Andrews' church in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, and an ex-presenter on the community radio station 10Radio, denies eight charges of rape, five of indecent assault and four of sexual assault alleged to have been committed between August 1998 and October 2009.

The prosecutor Sarah Regan told the jury that the alleged offences were said to have taken place in Parkin's car and at his house.

Regan told jurors the younger girl was the first to come forward to say she had been sexually abused.

"She didn't tell anyone until she was 17, and that was in the school holidays in August 2010," Regan said. "The reason she told her headmaster was that she knew things in her life would not get better if she kept the abuse to herself."

Regan said Parkin was alleged to have indecently assaulted the older girl for the first time when he gave her a piano lesson when she was 11.

A second incident is said to have happened when the girl was aged 12 or 13 and, she alleged, Parkin again indecently assaulted her.

The girl, who is now 24, did not tell anyone of the alleged abuse until she confided in a university tutor.

"It was in that way gradually what had happened to her over the years at the hands of Nigel Parkin came out," Regan said.

The prosecutor told the court that Parkin, of Wiveliscombe, denied all the allegations, accused the two girls of lying and said they were both suffering from mental health problems.

The trial continues.