PETERBOROUGH (UNITED KINGDOM)
ITV News [London, UK]
December 1, 2025
By Katie Ridley
A woman who was sexually assaulted by a well-known Catholic priest as a child says she “felt dirty” for decades after the abuse.
Fran, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, was sexually abused by Dennis Finbow in the 1980s while he was working as a priest in Peterborough.
Her speaking out led to him being convicted for the first time in 2023, since when more of his victims have come forward to report further offences.
“It made me feel so dirty, and so wrong and bad, that I knew not to say anything,” she told ITV News.
Finbow, 77, originally from Ipswich, served as a priest throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.
He was well-known in the Peterborough and St Neots area, and would regularly feature in local newspapers for his charity work.
Fran said Finbow’s “larger-than-life” character and highly respected religious status meant he was able to get away with his crimes.
“He was a man of God… he had power, he had authority,” she said. “He would walk into the room and dominate the conversation.
“He had a lot of power within the church; he also had a lot of power within the wider community,” she said.
In 2023, Finbow was convicted of sexually abusing Fran during the 1980s, when he was working as a priest in Peterborough.
He was jailed for six-and-a-half years and placed on the sex offenders register for life.
Fran said the abuse still affected her daily, and she now struggled to trust men.
“It’s about your self-worth, because when something like that happens to you, it’s like your dirtiest worst secret.
“It’s mainly about relationships with men, but it’s about more than that, it’s about trust, it’s about trusting anyone.
“He was somebody that I trusted, my whole family trusted, and my extended family trusted, and the whole committee.
“He was someone that we let into our home freely.”
Following his conviction, Cambridgeshire Police charged Finbow with further offences against multiple other victims.
Although the priest initially claimed the allegations were “nonsense” in police interviews, he later admitted to multiple offences, and was given a further sentence of 11 years in October of this year, to run concurrently.
Finbow admitted to offences against victims spanning several years, meeting them all through his work as a priest in the Catholic Church.
This included touching a boy in 1974 at a school where he was teaching, before his ordination.
He also abused an altar boy between August 1984 and August 1985, a girl between February 1984 and February 1985, a girl between 1987 and 1991, and a third girl between 1987 and 1988.
In total, he admitted to eight counts of indecent assault of a girl under 14, four counts of indecent assault of a boy under 14, two counts of indecent assault of a girl under 16, and one count of indecent assault on a woman over 16.
Speaking at the time of his conviction, Det Con Annette Renwick, who investigated, described Finbow as “a prominent figure within the Catholic Church in Cambridgeshire during the 1980s and 1990s that parishioners looked up to”.
She added: “At the time, he was seen to do a lot of good within the community: running youth social clubs, football clubs and taking part in charity events.
“We never want to entertain the thought that a person in a position of trust would harm a child, yet unfortunately it does happen, and Finbow used his role in society to engineer opportunities to offend.”
Solicitors representing victims in this case say the extent of Finbow’s abuse is unknown, and believe there may be yet more victims.
Andrew Lord, of the law firm Leigh Day, said: “It does take a tremendous amount of bravery to come forward, and I really commend everybody who does.
“I would just like to get the message out there that there are people out there who will listen to you, that it doesn’t matter if this happened decades ago, you are still living with it.
“It’s still your lived reality and people will hear you and people will believe you. So please do feel free to come forward.”
Fran now hopes that by speaking up she can encourage potential victims to come forward.
“Just reach out to the police, regardless of your own personal experience of the police,” she said.
“This is your chance to tell your truth, and to be in control of that.”
The Catholic Church had already removed Finbow’s clerical status following previous convictions. He had not been in active ministry since 2001.