A “disgusting and nasty” Paedophile ex-Anglican priest, Ifor Whittaker, has been imprisoned for sexually abusing a youngster and planning abuse with another priest.
Originally Colin Pritchard, Ifor Whittaker was found guilty of mistreating the lad between the ages of ten and sixteen during the 1980s and 1990s.
The 73-year-old also planned sex acts with former pastor Roy Cotton, who had passed away.
Ifor Whittaker, of Rectory Road, Sutton, South London, spent sixteen years behind bars.
He was informed he would spend a minimum of ten years behind bars. Having a past conviction, he is already a registered sex offender for a lifetime.
Judge Paul Tain, sentencing Whittaker, said the priest’s actions were “disgraceful, disgusting and nasty”.
“It was an obvious and clear case of grooming, where he carefully manipulated a vulnerable child,” he remarked.
The judge remarked Ifor Whittaker had “attempted to bamboozle, cheat and mislead the jury”.
The abuser had “plied the victim with alcohol” and “emotionally blackmailed the boy by saying ‘no one would believe you over a priest,'” he said.
Former Sedlescombe, near Battle, rector Ifor Whittaker was found guilty of seven counts, including gross indecency and encouraging the lad to engage in gross indecency.
East Sussex, Hove Crown Court was informed of the offences and reported them between February 1987 and February 1993.
Ifor Whittaker, a “predatory paedophile,” had planned and enabled the abuse with Roy Cotton, a priest in Brede, close to Rye, in the 1990s.
He passed away in 2006 and never went on trial.
Now in his 40s, the victim said before the court Roy Cotton had “just passed me over like a toy to be borrowed by a friend” and had been the primary abuser.
The court heard the abuse started when Ifor Whittaker persuaded him to help with churchyard maintenance in exchange for pocket money.
It was alleged that Ifor Whittaker and Roy Cotton “had an agreement”, and Cotton would frequently bring the lad to and from Ifor Whittaker’s house.
There were further incidents at Roy Cotton’s house where the jury heard Ifor Whittaker “suddenly immediately appear in the room as if he had been watching” following abuse.
Ifor Whittaker’s victim said of him, “quite forceful, quite scary”.
Ifor Whittaker had already confessed guilty to gross indecency and indecent assault in 2008 about acts which had taken place in Wellingborough in Northamptonshire against adolescent lads in the 1980s.
The Diocese of Chichester commissioned Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss in 2010 to investigate how the two priests were let to operate at East Sussex parishes following the earlier sex abuse claims.
Following Baroness Butler-Sloss’s investigation on how senior clergy and Sussex Police handled past reports of abuse by Cotton and then Colin Pritchard, the diocese apologised “unreservedly”.
“We express our great sorrow and regret to the victim in this case and our admiration for their courage and determination in coming forward,” the Diocese of Chichester said following Whittaker’s most recent conviction.
“Child abuse is a profound violation of the Christian religion as well as a disgrace and a tragedy.
“This case shows once more the need to listen to people who disclose abuse.”
UPDATE 15.11.24
A former Church of England vicar, Ifor Whittaker, could face life imprisonment as he is set to be sentenced for a third time for child sex offences.
Ifor Whittaker, 80, admitted rape and gross indecency of a young boy in the vestry of St John The Baptist Church in Sedlescombe, East Sussex, in the 1990s, where he served as a priest at the time under the name Colin Pritchard.
Ifor Whittaker is already serving a 16-year-sentence for abusing a boy between 1987 and 1991 following a trial in 2018, and had previously been jailed for five years in 2008 for the abuse of two children in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, between 1979 to 1983.
At Hove Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Gary Lucie adjourned the sentencing hearing to consider the jail term.
“This is a very serious case, it’s life or a very long sentence, I need to work my way through all of that,” he said.
The court heard that Whittaker had baptised the boy whom he later went on to abuse in the incident at the church.
Prosecutor Beverly Cripps said the victim described to police being terrified during the attack and that he tried to bury the memories of what happened to him there but “it had come back to him in pieces over the years”.
The sentencing hearing has been adjourned until November 19.
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