New Quiz for Eastbourne Abuse Case Cleric

The Argus
April 17, 2012

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9652844.New_quiz_for_Eastbourne_abuse_case_cleric/

A priest at the centre of an abuse inquiry has been arrested over four more allegations.

Canon Gordon Rideout was arrested and bailed in March on suspicion of sexual assaults on nine young people in Crawley, London and Hampshire between 1965 and 1972.

Yesterday Sussex Police confirmed he had been arrested again over four new claims. He was being questioned in custody last night.

The force released a statement saying: “A 73-year-old man from Eastbourne is being interviewed on suspicion of four sexual assaults on young people during the late 1960s and early 1970s in Ifield, West Sussex, and Middle Wallop in Hampshire.”

Canon Rideout was the vicar of All Saints Church in Eastbourne for 25 years.

He was also a chairman of governors at Bishop Bell School in Priory Road, Eastbourne, and St Mary’s Special School in Wrestwood Road, Bexhill.

He was arrested over one allegation in 2001 but never charged.

A second priest, Father Robert Coles, was also arrested last month on suspicion of sexually assaulting three young men in West Sussex in the 1970s and 1980s.

He too had been arrested before, in 1997, but no prosecution was brought at that time. He is due to answer bail this week.

A Sussex Police unit has spent six months following up reports prepared by Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss on allegations made against priests in the Diocese of Chichester.

Her report was triggered by inquiries into abuse by two priests in East Sussex.

Roy Cotton, who abused at least ten boys from Eastbourne, already had a conviction for assaulting a choirboy when he was ordained in 1966.

Colin Pritchard, vicar of St Barnabas in Bexhill until 2007, was jailed for five years in 2008 for sex offences in Northamptonshire.

After the arrest of Canon Rideout and Father Coles, Acting Bishop of Chichester Mark Sowerby said: “We are resolved to do whatever is necessary to prevent the abuse of children and vulnerable adults.”