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	Catholic Priest Who Sexually Abused Girls 30 Years Ago Jailed By Steven Morris The Guardian September 30, 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/30/catholicism.childprotection A Catholic priest who sexually abused seven girls 30 years ago and was finally caught when two of the victims swapped memories of him on the Friends Reunited website was jailed for a year yesterday. Peter Carr, 73, sponged stage paint on to the naked bodies of girls taking part in plays at a school where he taught in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was brought to justice when two women now in their 40s, one a solicitor, the other a singer, met on Friends Reunited and talked of their experiences. They complained to police, who found that other girls had also been abused by Carr, who taught at a school in Gloucestershire. Jailing Carr at Gloucester crown court, Judge Martin Picton told him that he had left his victims feeling "degraded and humiliated" and had done the church "much damage". Carr, of Battersea, south London, was convicted of 10 counts of indecent assault on the seven girls. He was involved in the production of two plays, Sinbad the Sailor and Tom Thumb, at the boys' school. The girls, who were from another school, were invited to take part in the plays and Carr told them they needed to wear full body makeup. He smeared paint over their naked bodies, helped clean it off afterwards and told them not to tell anyone. One of the victims who chatted about the abuse on the website, and is now a 49-year-old singer, said Carr had become a "monster in her mind". She said: "When my marriage broke up, I went to counselling and she told me that it was all down to this. I thought about going to the police in my 20s but I thought because it was just me, that no one would believe me." The woman said he applied the make-up with a sponge and used his hands to smooth it around her stomach, chest and back. "He bathed me and told me not to enjoy it, because you shouldn't enjoy things like that," she added. Ian Dixey, prosecuting, said the girls had been "torn between desire to take part in productions which they enjoyed and the discomfort of having to be totally naked before a strange man." After reports of the case appeared last week three other women had come forward making identical complaints, Dixey added, but no further charges would follow. Noel Lucas, defending, said Carr was ashamed. But he added: "The plays were a huge success. The girls loved being in the plays and returned year on year. They inspired many of them in later life." Picton paid tribute to the courage of the women who came forward. He told Carr: "What you did to your victims all those years ago was very wrong. I hope it is of some comfort to your victims that you at last have had to admit that you abused and humiliated these children out of a sexual motive. "The shows should have been the high points of their childhoods but the pleasure is for ever tainted by the abuse they suffered at your hands."
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