A Respected Vicar Who LED a Double Life As a Collector of Child Pornography, Some of It " Vile and Stomach-Churning" , Amassed More Than 56,000 Indecent Images, a Court Has Heard
By Richard Savill
Telegraph
September 25, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3081408/Vicar-found-with-56000-child-porn-images- jailed-for-three-and-a-half-years.html
Richard Hart, 59, who was chairman of the school governors in the village where he lived, was jailed for three-and-a-half years.
The trusted member of the community had earlier admitted 21 charges of taking, making and possessing pictures over a 16-year period between 1991 and 2007.
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| Richard Hart, a vicar and trusted member of the community, visited websites around the world to download depraved pictures, fictional stories and films |
Hart, a married man whose wife knew of his collection, visited websites around the world to download depraved pictures, fictional stories and films, Cardiff Crown Court was told.
He also took photographs of young girls when he went swimming with them at a lake as part of their Sunday school activities.
Ieuan Morris, prosecuting, told the court: "One of them (the girls) said he used to describe them as his little water babies.
"The women described their shock and disgust that he had kept these photos of them naked for his own use for a number of years."
One of Hart's victims, who was photographed by him as a child while swimming naked with her friends in a river, later said she felt "shocked, revolted and betrayed" when she found out police had discovered the pictures at his home.
"I remember him taking photographs and it is something that has kind of played on my mind since," she said outside court.
"I think a couple of parents did feel slightly uneasy about it but because it could have been such an innocent thing nothing really more was made of it.
"The fact he was a vicar and was trusted and respected - it was sort of brushed under the carpet a little bit."
The court heard Hart had 44 images showing child sex abuse in the most serious category five and 52,240 in the least serious category.
When asked by police why he collected the images, Hart replied: "It was one of those things. Once you start there is this magpie instinct in some of us and you just keep collecting don't you?"
The court heard that Hart hoarded indecent images of children aged between four and 15.
His wife, Julie Hart, 41, told police she knew her husband was viewing sexual images of children and the pair looked at them in their bedroom.
She claimed it "wasn't anyone else's business".
Mrs Hart, a mother of five, told police: "We occasionally looked at images of teenage girls, sometimes leading to sexual intercourse."
She was cautioned by police for possession of the least serious category one photographs.
Mrs Hart has been disqualified from working with children for two years.
When Mrs Hart was re-interviewed some months later, Mr Morris said she changed tack and said she was "distressed by the events and shocked by the variety of images".
The couple lived in Beguildy, near Knighton, Mid Wales, where Hart was chairman of the governors at the local primary school.
He now has an address in Woking, Surrey.
The prosecutor said the images, a number of which "defies comprehension", were downloaded to stimulate Hart's "craving" for paedophilia.
Mr Morris said: "He was welcomed into the home of parishioners as their vicar and their friend.
"Young children were entrusted into his care.
"But beneath the veneer of respectability there was a perverted craving and lusting for young girls."
The court heard the couple's five children, aged from five to 17, were now in foster care.
Hart, who had no previous convictions, was also put on the sex offenders register, disqualified from working with children and put under a sexual offences prevention order for 10 years.
The court heard he was a computer programmer before he was ordained as a priest in 1986.
Hart was priest-in-charge of four parishes in Powys, mid Wales, but has been suspended from his pastoral duties while the case has been referred to a Church in Wales disciplinary panel.
His wife, who worked part time as an assistant at the village school, has also been disqualified from working with children.
None of the victims were believed to be court.
Mr Morris said: "There is no evidence to date that the defendant has abused children in his care but from what he stated in interview, he has a deep-seated, prurient interest in children."
After Hart's sentencing, the Church in Wales said it was "deeply saddened and shocked".
"There is no place for any form of abuse in the Church in Wales," it said in a statement.
"We give the highest priority to the care and protection of children and vulnerable people in the community.
"To this end we regularly review our child protection policies and we will also shortly begin examining clergy records which pre-date those policies."
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