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	Bexhill Priest Asks for Paedophile Prison Term to Be Cut By Naomi Loomes The Argus March 28, 2009 http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/4240300.Bexhill_priest_asks_for_paedophile_prison_term_to_be_cut/ A paedophile vicar who abused boys for years asked for his jail term to be cut - saying he was a nice man at heart. Colin Pritchard was jailed for five years after he was convicted of running a campaign of sexual abuse against a young boy. The 64-year-old, of St Augustine's Close, Bexhill, preyed on the victim as well as a second boy who was assaulted by another priest, who was a friend. The offences were committed up to three decades ago when Pritchard was a parish priest at St Andrew's Church in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. It was not until July last year that he was brought to justice when he was jailed at Northampton Crown Court after admitting indecent assault and indecency with a child. But Pritchard launched an appeal saying he had been treated too harshly. He went to the Court of Appeal and claimed he should have been given a lighter sentence due to his good works and character. But, dismissing his case, Lord Justice Dyson, sitting with Mrs Justice Rafferty and Mr Justice Sweeney, said the five-year total was fair for the terrible crimes he committed. Overweight and balding, Pritchard sat in silence in his grey prison-issue sweatshirt in the dock today as the judge outlined his vile offending. The priest had subjected the boy to years of abuse, beginning before he had reached his teens, kissing and cuddling him before escalating to oral sex, he said. He groped another boy - the victim of a paedophile priest friend of Pritchard's - after a night in which the two clergymen plied him with alcohol. Lawyers for Pritchard argued that the trial judge had not given him credit for his substantial personal mitigation, which should have reduced the sentence. That included his many years as a respected parish priest, who was highly regarded as a man of integrity. Written supporting statements described a very different person to that which molested the boys. But, after considering the argument, Lord Justice Dyson said: "It seems to us that the judge clearly took into account the personal mitigation in reaching the conclusion that, if he had contested these charges, he would have imposed a total sentence of seven-and-a-half years' imprisonment. "He took into account the mitigation and the unquestionably grave aggravating factors that existed in this case in arriving at that figure. "It then remained for him only to reduce that figure to reflect the credit that he was entitled to receive for his pleas of guilty."
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