Paedophile Vicar Has Jail Sentence Increased

Yorkshire Post
September 18, 2013

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/main-topics/general-news/paedophile-vicar-has-jail-sentence-increased-1-6058100

A DISGRACED vicar has had five years added to his jail sentence after he admitted having sex with two more vulnerable young boys.

Peter Hedge, 51, was locked up for 14 years in 2009 after a jury found him guilty of raping and sexually abusing six youngsters. But Judge Peter Benson yesterday extended that sentence after the Oxford University graduate admitted offences against two other boys.

Sophie Drake, prosecuting, told Bradford Crown Court that one of two new complainants had been interviewed during the initial police inquiry, but denied anything had happened as he wanted to get on with his life. However, in 2011 he contacted police and revealed how Hedge had sexually abused him on three occasions.

At the time the abuse began in the 1990s, Hedge was the curate of St Margaret’s Church, Thornbury, Bradford, but he continued to target youngsters after becoming the vicar at Holy Trinity Church, Queensbury.

He used cannabis and alcohol to corrupt his victims and when one of the latest complainants was 15 he was given £200 to “keep quiet” about the repeated abuse.

Miss Drake said another man came forward last year and alleged Hedge repeatedly abused him. She said the complainant had become addicted to cannabis after being introduced to the drug by Hedge.

Hedge pleaded guilty in June to charges of buggery, indecent assault and indecency with a child in relation to one of the new complainants and yesterday admitted offences of rape, indecency with a child and indecent assault in respect of the second victim.

Jailing him for an extra five years, Judge Benson said: “The parents of those boys trusted you to care for their children and keep them safe and indeed set an example of Christian conduct. Instead of that you abused that trust in the most dreadful ways imaginable.”

Hedge is subject to an indefinite sexual offences prevention order and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.