UNITED KINGDOM
Southern Daily Echo

A HAMPSHIRE paedophile priest who was jailed for life for a catalogue of abuse against young boys, including raping an 11-year-old, has failed in a bid to reduce his sentence.

Perverted Simon Thomas made the challenge at the highest court in England almost seven years after being handed the life term by a judge who said he posed a danger to young boys that might never end.

Aged 44 at the time, he was the ordained minister in the United Reformed Church in Hythe, just a stone’s throw from his home in Atheling Road where he lived with his wife and children. Southampton Crown Court heard how the father-of-four had told scores of boys he met on the Internet that he was gay but in a heterosexual relationship with his wife.