UNITED KINGDOM
This is the West Country

A RETIRED Church of England priest was today jailed for six years sexual offences dating back to the early 1980s.

The Rev Geoffrey Cooke was found guilty of eight offences against a boy aged under 15 during a trial in November.

Sentencing Cooke at Taunton Crown Court, Judge Graham Hume Jones said his crimes had had a lasting effect on his victim.

Cooke faces a Church disciplinary procedure and is likely to be banned from taking to the pulpit ever again.