Priest "Sexually Abused Young Boys"

Littlehampton Gazette
March 14, 2013

http://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/regional/priest-sexually-abused-young-boys-1-4893174

A Church of England priest from West Sussex used the respectability of his cassock to groom and sexually abuse young boys along with his organist, a court has heard.

Father Keith Wilkie Denford, 78, breached the trust of the parents of two boys by molesting them over an 18-month period from when they were around 13 years old, it is alleged.

On one occasion it is claimed he got into a bath with one of the boys while aroused. On another he allegedly pressed himself up against a boy intimately with the words: "How nice it is to have a cuddle."

Hove Crown Court heard that one time Denford, who was the vicar at St John the Evangelist Church in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, abused one of the boys aided by organist Michael Mytton, 68.

Following a meal at a restaurant in Cuckfield, Denford asked Mytton to pull his Jaguar over into a layby where he went on to molest the "inconsolable" boy on the back seat, jurors heard. Prosecutor Marcus Fletcher said that one of the two boys recalled blowing the whistle about the abuse to a vicar - but nothing was done.

In the end, it was not until last year that police were alerted after one of the boys, now in their late 30s, found out that Denford was still in contact with children. Through police investigation, the name of a third boy emerged and he disclosed that he suffered abuse at the hands of Mytton from around 1990 to 1994 when he was aged 10 or 11, the court was told.

The boy Mytton is alleged to have abused told investigators that he would suck his nipples, and refer to them as Mr Lefty and Mr Righty.

Mr Fletcher added: "Mytton also touched the boy's penis on numerous occasions and made it clear that he wanted sex with him, saying, 'If I could just f*** you once'. Mytton would buy him gifts, all with one aim in mind - to abuse him."

Denford, of Broad Reach Mews, Shoreham-by-Sea, denies four counts of indecent assault against two boys between January 1987 and January 1990. Mytton, of South Road, East Chiltington, East Sussex, denies one count of aiding and abetting indecent assault and five counts of indecent assault against two boys between January 1987 and September 1994.

The case, which is due to last 10 days, continues from 10am on Thursday.