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	Former Coventry Priest Admits Trying to Get Abuse Allegations Dropped By Emma Stone Coventry Telegraph October 20, 2010 http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2010/10/20/former-coventry-priest-admits-trying-to-get-abuse-allegations-dropped-92746-27511514/ A FORMER Coventry priest accused of abusing young boys has admitted asking a senior church member if he could use his contacts in the police to get the allegations dropped. Yesterday a letter written in 1995 by Richard James Robinson, while he was in America, to the Vicar General in Birmingham was read to the jury at Birmingham Crown Court. Reading from the letter, prosecutor Mohammed Hafeez said: “‘I do remember you saying that you had high contacts in the force, so surely you could see how long this investigation is supposed to take and when it will end or even get the whole thing dropped, so I can get on with my life in the ministry’.” Mr Hafeez added: “You went as far as to ask the Vicar General to get the case dropped didn’t you?” “According to this, yes,” Mr Robinson replied. The 73-year-old, known to many as Jim or Jimmy, denies 21 counts of sexual abuse. Last year he was extradited from California to face the charges. The charges relate to four alleged victims between the late 1950s and the mid-80s – before and during Robinson’s time as a Catholic priest. Robinson served at a number of churches in the Midlands area, including St Elizabeth’s, in Foleshill, during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Under cross examination, Robinson told the court he had no knowledge of any complaints of abuse being made to the police when he emigrated to California in 1985. Yesterday, a second letter written by Robinson and sent to a member of the Archdiocese in Birmingham in 1986 was read out in court. Mr Hafeez read: “‘As I was making arrangements to come across here, something very dramatic happened, which I discussed with my Vicar General. "I was being accused, with various phonecalls, of having an unsavoury relationship with a man I had been talking with’.” Asked if the Vicar General had told him of the allegations before leaving the country, Robinson said: “He could have told me, yes. I just don’t remember. If he did, he did.” The former clergyman was also asked whether the Archdiocese of Birmingham continued to send him money while he was in America. Robinson told the court: “It was only to pay for my pills for my heart. It was not a substantial amount.” A photocopy of a cheque for ?8,400 paid to Robinson by the Archdiocese in 2000 was shown to the court. Robinson told the hearing he could not remember receiving the cheque. Asked why the six alleged victims would make abuse claims, if they were not true, Robinson told the court the men were lying and may have done so for monetary gain. The trial continues.
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