UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald
Published on 10/05/2013
The priest accused of sexually assaulting young boys and girls in children’s homes has given evidence for the first time.
Church of England priest Gordon Trevor Rideout admitted being “touchy feely” to children in the care homes he visited in the 1960 and 1970s. But he denies indecently assaulting 16 boys and girls as young as five-years-old in children’s care homes in West Sussex, Essex and Hampshire between 1961 and 1973.
The 74-year-old pleaded not guilty to 37 sexual offences, including attempted rape, as he gave evidence at Lewes Crown Court on May 8. Rideout, of Filching Close, Polegate, was asked if he was a “touchy feely kind of person” by defence QC Frances Oldham.
He replied yes, adding, “If a child was miserable or upset I would hug or kiss them, perhaps more so when they were a little, not big children. By little I mean five, six and seven-years-old. I would hug them by putting my arm around them as you would do a child if they had fallen over or were miserable.”
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