Ex-cornwall Church Preacher Jeremy Dowling Found Guilty of Child Sex Abuse
By David Wells
A former lay preacher has been jailed for eight years for indecently assaulting a boy he met during his time at a church. Jeremy Dowling, the former spokesman for the Bishop of Truro, had the eight years added to a seven-year prison term he was already serving for offences against boys. He has now been found guilty of sexually abusing a boy. He carried out the assaults on a 10-year-old he met in 1973 at St Michaels Church at Budehaven, Truro Crown Court heard.
He admitted those offences last year. He has now been convicted of a further six charges relating to the indecent assault of a boy under the age of 14 between 1973 and 1977. Judge Simon Carr told him: "The boy looked up to you. He attended church for help and guidance and what he found was you. "He looked to you as a role model. He enjoyed your company. But you abused him over a period of four years, from the age of 10. You enjoyed not only the sexual gratification, but also the risk." The Judge said that taking into account last year's sentencing, Dowling would now serve a total of 15 years in prison. He will not be eligible for parole until he has served at least half of that term. The boy, now a man in his 50s, made his complaint to police after reading news reports of the previous court case. Two further charges of gross indecency, which Dowling also denied, were withdrawn at the end of the trial. A Truro Crown Court jury of seven women and five men took just over two hours to reach its unanimous guilty verdict.
He said the abuse happened when he stayed overnight at Dowling's home, although Dowling's wife Daphne said she had no memory of the boy ever visiting. "We know that potential witnesses have either died or could not be traced. We know that television franchises have changed. You should say to yourself `I need to be careful.`" Addressing the jury on why the complainant might have waited so long to make his allegations, the Judge added that traumatic events or episodes affected people in different ways: "There is no uniform way that people complain about offences. Some run screaming from the room. Others wait years, or even decades. Don't make assumptions." Dowling worked as a lay preacher at St Michael's church, Budehaven, and later at St Gennys church, Crackington Haven, before becoming the official spokesman for the Diocese of Truro – a position he held for nearly two decades, before retiring in 2009. The Bishop of Truro, the Right Reverend Tim Thornton, said the case "fills me with sadness and shame" and he apologised "unreservedly" to the survivor of the abuse.
He said: "I am deeply sorry that Jeremy Dowling used a cloak of ecclesiastical respectability to gain trust and access; the church failed in its responsibility when it should have been there as a positive influence. "I would also like to thank the survivor for coming forward and acknowledge how painful and difficult this must have been. I hope the fact that Jeremy Dowling has been convicted of these offences and will now be subject to a further prison sentence will at least bring some sense of justice. "This news will come as a further shock to many people Jeremy worked with in his long association with the church, as a Reader, a member of the Diocesan and General Synods, and as the diocesan communications officer. "We are deeply committed to co-operating fully with the current independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in England and Wales. We are equally committed to assisting the police in any form of investigation into such acts."
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