UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

An Anglican priest jailed for sexually abusing young children has applied to be released from prison on compassionate grounds.

Canon Gordon Rideout, 74, from East Sussex, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May after being found guilty of 36 separate sex offences.

The priest committed the offences against 16 children between 1962 and 1973 in Hampshire and Sussex.

One of his victims said she and her family were in “a state of disbelief”.

She said she felt anguish at Rideout’s “obvious ploy to manipulate the system” with his application.