May 21, 2005

Priest faces more charges

BRITAIN
Times & Star

A FORMER Workington priest will face a total of 27 charges of indecent assault when he appears in court next month.

Father Piers Grant Ferris, 71, was at York Crown Court last Friday.

He initially faced 16 charges relating to a period 30 years ago when he was a teacher at a private school for boys near York. Eleven further charges have now been added.

Now a monk at Ampleforth Abbey, Yorkshire, he was charged following a police investigation into alleged abuse at Gilling Castle Preparatory School, York.

The alleged assaults date to between the late 1960s and the mid-1970s at the fee-paying school for boys aged from seven to 13.

No details of the ages of the alleged victims were made public. His connection with the school, now closed, ended in 1975.

Posted by kshaw at May 21, 2005 09:09 AM