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	Priest on Child Sex Charges ic Birmingham [United Kingdom] February 16, 2007 http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/birminghampost/news/tm_headline=priest-on-child-sex-charges &method=full&objectid=18631352&siteid=50002-name_page.html A parish priest who was a former chairman of governors at a city school was yesterday charged with the attempted rape of a child. Honorary Canon Father John Herve, will appear before magistrates in Birmingham next Thursday accused of one count of attempted rape of a person under 16. He was also charged with five counts of indecent assault on persons under 14 and one count of indecent assault on a person under 16. The charges relate to incidents alleged to have happened in the 1990s. Fr John was formally charged yesterday morning after answering bail at Belgrave Road police station following a year-long police investigation. He was arrested in January last year after a number of allegations of rape and gross indecency were made against him. A West Midlands Police spokesman said: "A 56-year-old man from Birmingham has been charged with one count of attempted rape of a person under 16, five counts of indecent assault on persons under 14 and one count of indecent assault on a person under 16." The Diocese of Birmingham suspended him from his post as vicar of St Agatha's Church, on Stratford Road, Sparkbrook, following his arrest last year. St Agatha's is next door to Ladypool Primary School, where Fr John was chairman of the board of governors. He later agreed to temporarily stand down from the Board while detectives carried out their inquiries. The allegations do not relate to children at the school. Fr John, who grew up in Selly Oak, has been parish priest of St Agatha's for the past 17 years. As an Army chaplain between 1976 and 1981 he had tours of duty in Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and with the UN in Cyprus. Returning to Birmingham, Fr John was parish priest of St Andrew's, Handsworth, during the riots in 1981 and 1985. While at St Agatha's he spearheaded the restoration of the church following a grant of £672,000 in Lotto cash and two years ago welcomed Prince Edward and his wife Sophie to the church to mark the project. A spokesman for the Diocese of Birmingham said: "Throughout this inquiry the diocese has co-operated with the police and supported the parishes involved." Fr John was appointed Honorary Canon of Birmingham Cathedral in April 2005 and has conducted the Annual Service of Remembrance in Centenary Square
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