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Law professor, 61, tells of horrific sex abuse
By Chantalle Edmunds
A professor whose vicar sexually assaulted her while saying 'this is what God wanted' 40 years ago has today condemned him as a 'predator' who had taken advantage of her faith. Brave Julie Macfarlane has waived her right to anonymity to speak out against disgraced Church of England priest Meirion Griffiths, who was this week convicted of molesting her when she was a teenager. The university law professor, now 61, was subjected to a year-long campaign of 'disgusting' and 'repulsive' repeated sexual abuse. Griffiths, 81, now faces jail after he was convicted on Monday of indecently assaulting Prof Macfarlane and another woman from his congregation in the 1970s and 1980s. Griffiths was a rector from the Diocese of Chichester, West Sussex, at the time and Portsmouth Crown Court, Hants, heard he grew 'obsessed' with his victims before 'systematically' abusing them. Prof Macfarlane, who has since moved to Canada and lectures at Ontario's University of Windsor, said she turned to Griffiths when she was 17 and had doubts with her faith. She said: 'He was a very big authority figure for me. I was a very earnest Christian girl. 'He was my minister and authority figure. I went to him for my doubts which I was experiencing about my faith, and that's when he started to abuse me at the very same time. 'I had no idea what was going on, I felt absolutely terrified. I felt totally repulsed and disgusted by what he asked me to do. 'But I thought he was a man of God, so he was able to do that to me over and over again. 'He told me 'this is what God wanted'.' Mother of three Prof Macfarlane also warned: 'There will almost certainly be other victims out there.' Prof Macfarlane contacted Sussex Police in 2014. She said: 'It's been a very, very long time. 'Not only since this took place but since I've been trying to put this right, because when I first decided that I needed to do something to ensure that he wouldn't do this to other people — I was clear that the behaviour was predatory and would be a pattern. 'It happened when I was a teenager, by the time I was in my 30s I realised I had some responsibility about this. That's when I first began to do something.' She complained to Griffiths' then-church in Australia after the priest emigrated to the country and engaged in a lengthy legal battle with the Diocese of Chichester and successfully forced the church's insurer to change its civil claims policy. The abuse has left her with chronic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but Prof Macfarlane has praised fellow sex abuse victims who come forward, citing the #MeToo campaign. She said: 'The more people who stand up and say 'me too' the more this will change the public perception which still tends to blame the victim, and people don't really understand why it takes so long. 'I look like a strong person now but this took me decades to do this.' Jurors at Portsmouth Crown Court convicted Griffiths of four counts of indecent assault. He was cleared of two indecent assaults and will be sentenced at a date yet to be fixed. Asked about her reaction to the jury's verdicts on Monday Prof Macfarlane said it was a 'day for hope not despair'.
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