By Sally Henfield
The Blackbourne Citizen
March 19, 2008
http://www.blackburncitizen.co.uk/display.var.2132577.0.child_porn_vicars_suspended_sentence.php
A FORMER Blackburn vicar has today been given a suspended prison sentence for downloading child porn at his vicarage.
One video viewed by the Rev Paul Battersby, 58, vicar of St Ambrose Church, Leyland, showed the brutal rape of a 10-year-old girl by her father.
The father-of-two, of Moss Lane, Leyland, was suspended in May after his teenage stepson found the images on his PC's memory stick and his wife then told the Bishop of Blackburn.
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| Rev Paul Battersby at a previous court appearance |
Sentencing Battersby to 34 weeks in jail, suspended for two years, Judge Philip Sycamore said: "You have breached the duty of responsibility in a most disgraceful way.
"Right-thinking members of society will probably feel a sense of repugnance towards you and your activities."
The judge told Preston Crown Court that on balance the offences were best served by the defendant being made to take part in a community sex offenders programme and carry out unpaid work.
Battersby, 58, was priest in charge at St Mark's Church in Witton, Blackburn, for four years until moving to Leyland, where the offence took place, in 2003.
He was previously a rector at St Peter's Church, Darwen, from 1992 to 1994.
He is a former national youth officer for the Church of England and worked as a teacher before joining the clergy.
He also acted as a principal officer in the Blackburn Diocese Board of Social Responsibility, from 1994 to 1999.
Despite pleading guilty to three counts of downloading indecent images of children last July, he has been suspended on full pay - thought to be around £1,600 a month - because of a legal technicality.
The Church of England could not start its own disciplinary procedure until the judicial case had come to an end.
The court was told that the material had been on the computer in his study for up to an hour and a half on the morning of April 30 last year.
Mrs Hilary Banks, prosecuting, said Battersby had accessed a sharing programme, using such terms in the search engine as "ten year old kiddie reality" and "under age legal Lolita daughter incest".
One of the videos in the case was at the most serious level, level five.
More than 100 pages of support comments from a large amount of people, including senior clergy, were handed to the court.
Peter Turner, defending, told the court Battersby had served people in his ministry very well, including service abroad.
He said: "He risked his life in terms of his work for Amnesty in South America."
He said the defendant had now had 16 sessions with a psychologist which helped him understand how he had come to offend.
Battersby, who is working with an order of nuns, will have to do 200 hours unpaid work and pay £150 costs.
He has been barred from working with children, will be on the sex offenders register for 10 years and is banned from having unsupervised contact with any child under 16.
After the case, Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Rev Nicholas Reade, labelled the offences "repulsive" and said: "It is clear that a priest receiving a custodial sentence, whether suspended or immediate, will be removed from office for life.
"This sentence does nothing to mitigate, in the eyes of the Christian Church, the betrayal of his calling, his parishioners and the community he was called to serve.
"This was a shameful act and Mr Battersby is going to have to live with its severe consequences."
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