Priest in Court to Face Child Sex Abuse Charges, This Is Staffordshire, January 25, 2011

Priest in Court to Face Child Sex Abuse Charges

This Is Staffordshire
January 25, 2011

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Priest-court-face-sex-abuse-charges/article-3139441-detail/article.html

Bede Walsh approaching North Staffordshire Magistrate's Court in Fenton

A former Roman Catholic priest has been sent to Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court accused of sexually abusing a number of young boys. Alexander Bede Walsh, pictured, aged 57, of Church Lane, Abbots Bromley, faces 19 charges under the Sexual Offences Act. He appeared before District Judge David Taylor, who gave Walsh conditional bail until January 31 when he will appear before a judge at the crown court.

Seventeen of the allegations, said to have been committed in Cheadle, Cotton and Chapelfields, in Coventry, involve indecently assaulting young boys between 1982 and 1994.

The other two charges are serious sexual offences said to have been committed between May 18, 1985 and May 17, 1986, and May 18, 1986 and May 17, 1987 in Cotton.

Walsh served the parish of Cheadle for 14 years where he was a governor and chaplain at the town's Painsley Catholic High School and a governor at its feeder schools in the district.

In 1985 he was appointed as procurator and priest in charge at the now defunct Cotton College and was also appointed to serve in Alton before moving to St John's Church, Banbury, Oxfordshire, in 1999.

The Crown Prosecution Service received a file from the police in December last year.

It held a review to ensure it was in the public interest to charge Walsh with the offences.