UNITED KINGDOM
The Times
By Andrew Norfolk
A PRIEST from one of Britain’s leading Roman Catholic families yesterday admitted 20 offences of sexual abuse against boys at Ampleforth College near York.
Father Piers Grant-Ferris, 72, pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting 15 boys, all aged under 12, during a nine-year period when he was a teacher at Gilling Castle, Ampleforth’s prep school.
Grant-Ferris, a Benedictine monk at Ampleforth Abbey, North Yorkshire, was told by the judge at Leeds Crown Court that he faces jail, even though his crimes were committed more than 30 years ago.
The priest, a former Irish Guards officer and a keen mountaineer, is the son of the late Lord Harvington, who as Sir Robert Grant-Ferris was a Conservative MP for 31 years and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. Lord Harvington, a wartime fighter pilot, was regarded as the voice of the Vatican in Westminster.