BRIGHTON (UNITED KINGDOM)
Sutton & Croydon Guardian [Croydon, London, England]
November 20, 2025
By Josh Bolton
A former Catholic priest abused his position at a church in Epsom to groom and sexually abuse a young boy.
Anthony White, who was known as Father Tony, used his position within St Joseph’s Church and involvement with clubs to select and groom the boy when he was in the first years of secondary school in the late 1980s.
Over the course of several years, White subjected the boy to repeated sexual abuse at his home but manipulated him into silence by blaming him for what had happened.
White, now 67, was jailed for 10 years in 2022 for the sexual abuse and rape of another young boy in the 1990s when he was an assistant priest at a St John the Evangelist Church in Horsham, West Sussex.
The Epsom survivor saw the press coverage of White’s 2022 conviction and found the courage to approach Sussex Police about the abuse he had suffered.
On November 4, White was sentenced to a further three years’ imprisonment after a Guildford Crown Court jury found him guilty of indecent assault of a boy under the age of 14.
Detective Constable Katherine Peters said: “I’d like to commend the bravery of the survivor for coming forward and supporting the police investigation after so many years.
“The conviction of White in 2022 for his crimes in Sussex brought back memories for the survivor who had suppressed his experiences for decades.