By Lucy Clark
This is Hampshire
May 16, 2008
http://www.thisishampshire.net/display.var.2276374.0.ex_priest_jailed_for_sex_abuse.php
A disgraced former priest has been jailed for four years and 10 months today for sexually abusing two teenagers.
Brian Rutledge, 69, was found guilty of a sexual offence on a boy of 17 following a trial.
He had previously admitted sexually assaulting the youth after getting into his double bed.
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The retired Catholic priest, of Waldergrave Close, Woolston, Southampton, also pleaded guilty to sexually abusing another teenager.
All offences took place in the 1980s.
Sentencing Rutledge at Southampton Crown Court Judge Christopher Leigh QC told him: "I am sad to say I saw absolutely no indication of regret or remorse, let alone repentance, from you at your trial.
"I have seldom seen someone so self-centred and less concerned for the wellbeing of others."
During the trial the court heard Rutledge met the first youth at a summer camp in 1975 and then they went on a pilgrimage together to Turin in 1979.
In 1981 the youth was invited to stay at Rutledge's bungalow at the Park Place Pastoral Centre, in Wickham.
Rutledge entered the boy's bedroom and attempted to commit a sexual offence on him.
The second youth was a pupil at a school where Rutledge was Chaplin.
The court heard Rutledge took him to his home, put on a religious video, and put his hand down the youth trousers.
Bishop Chrispian Hollis, the bishop of Portsmouth, has condemned the retired cleric and promised he will never serve as a priest again.
Rutledge has also been disqualified from working with children indefinitely.
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