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	Priest's Sex Abuse Case Collapses BBC News December 5, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/7129461.stm A priest accused of the attempted rape of a child has had the case against him dropped after the prosecution said it did not have any evidence. Father John Herve, vicar at St Agatha's Church in Sparkbrook, Birmingham, had been suspended from his position while the alleged offences were investigated. The trial of the 57-year-old, of Stanhope Street, Highgate, Birmingham, collapsed on its first day. The Diocese of Birmingham said it would meet with Fr Herve as soon as possible. The priest, who is an honorary canon and a former Army chaplain, was accused of 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. He denied all the charges, which related to alleged incidents dating back to the 1990s. On the first day of the trial at Warwick Crown Court one of the complainants refused to testify and the prosecution decided it was unlikely to bring a conviction on the basis of the other evidence they had.
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