EX-VICAR Jailed for Sex Abuse after Victim with Motor Neurone Disease Makes Legal History by Blinking Evidence
By Abigail O'Leary
An ex-vicar has been jailed for sexual abuse of a choirboy after a disabled victim gave evidence using eye-tracking technology for the first time in British legal history. Victim Michael Kelsick gave evidence to the court from a hospice by blinking when asked questions. Sadly, Michael died of motor neurone disease in a hospice before hearing his 78-year-old abuser had been found guilty. Cyril Rowe was sentenced to four years at Bournemouth Crown Court after being convicted of three counts of indecent assault at a Tower Hamlets church in the late 1970s.
The 47-year-old became the first person to give evidence in a UK court using the Eyegaze technology. Judge Peter Johnson said: "Michael was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2015 and he wished to see justice done. "Despite the ravages of that incurable illness, he was, thanks to modern science, finally able to tell the court of what happened to him at your hands. "He wanted to see justice done, but tragically that was not the case as he died shortly before an officer arrived to deliver the news. "He was sadly deprived of the news that justice had been served."
Mr Kelsick gave his evidence to the court through a taped interview and via a videolink from the hospice in Streatham where he spent his final days. He told the court how Rowe had abused him 20 times between 1978 and 1982 at the vicarage of St Matthias' Church in London as well as in the choir practice room, and would then pay him ?1 afterwards. The court heard Rowe was also convicted in 1996 for the abuse of another choirboy. Judge Johnson told him: "You have shown absolutely no remorse and very little insight into the harm you caused to a little boy." He described how Mr Kelsick had been adopted at the age of four "in tragic circumstances" and removed from his sisters to live with a parishioner at the church.
Simon Shannon, prosecuting, said: "Mr Kelsick was very much of the view that his life of crime and drug abuse was attributable to what happened to him at the hands of Mr Rowe." Rebecca Austin, defending, said Rowe was suffering from Parkinson's and lived a "lonely life", and has been "terrified" at the prospect of going to prison where he fears he will die. She added: "This trial was fraught with emotion, anyone watching the attempts of Mr Kelsick to communicate was bound to be swayed." Judge Johnson said: "I am told this is the first time that the Eyegaze technology was used to give evidence. "This was essential for justice as it allowed Michael to get justice when he was unable to give evidence by any other means."
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