Former Priest and Governor Arrested
Bexhill-on-Sea Observer
FORMER high-ranking priest and chair of governors at a Bexhill school Gordon Rideout was one of two men arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing young people this week. The 73-year-old (pictured) was arrested in a dawn raid on Tuesday morning at his home in Filching Close, Polegate, by detectives investigating allegations of sex abuse against young people in Sussex and London in the mid-1960s and early 1970s. Also arrested on the same morning was former priest at St Philip’s Church in St Philip’s Avenue, Eastbourne, Robert Coles, who was led from his Upperton Road, Eastbourne, flat and taken into police custody to be questioned on suspicion of sexually assaulting young people in the late 1970s and mid-1980s. As the Observer went to press yesterday Mr Rideout, a trustee at St Wilfrid’s Hospice and former chair of governors of St Mary’s special school, Bexhill, was allowed to return home after being quizzed by Sussex Police child protection detectives. He must return to the police station on April 18. Mr Coles was released on police bail on Wednesday until April 17. Police say the arrests came after a “complex and ongoing” reinvestigation into allegations made against the two men but at this stage the cases are not being linked. Mr Rideout, a former rural dean who spent 25 years as a vicar at All Saints in Carlisle Road, is suspected of sexually assaulting nine young people between 1965 and 1972 in Crawley, London and Hampshire. It was also revealed this week that several allegations were made to police in 1972 against Mr Rideout and again in 2001 but although he was arrested, there was not sufficient evidence to justify criminal proceedings. Mr Rideout conducted services at All Saints Church in Eastbourne until 2010. He was also chaplain at Moira House Girls School until 2003 and chair of governors at Bishop Bell School. In the 1960s he was a chaplain at two Barnado’s homes in London. Robert Coles is suspected of sexually assaulting three young men in the late 1970s and mid-1980s and police say he too was also arrested when an allegation was made to police in 1997 but there was insufficient evidence to bring charges. Other allegations have only recently emerged as a result of the current enquiry. Police also revealed this week the arrests came following receipt last year by the Diocese of Chichester and Sussex Police of a confidential review by Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss into historic allegations of sexual abuse by Church of England priests against young people in Sussex and elsewhere. The man leading the inquiry, Detective Chief Inspector Carwyn Hughes, said Sussex Police had decided to re-examine several of the historic allegations referred to in the confidential report which had led to the arrests and said the offences were allegedly committed at different times and in different places from each other. “Although they have been arrested on the same day the cases against the two men are being treated as separate enquiries at this stage,” said Det Ch Insp Hughes. The arrests also follow on-going church inquiries into Bishop Wallace Benn, the Bishop of Lewes, who lives in Eastbourne and is facing disciplinary action for alleged safeguarding mistakes. It also coincides with an investigation ordered by the Archbishop of Canterbury into child protection failings in churches in Sussex.
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