Former Coventry Priest on Trial Accused of Sexually Abusing Young Boys

By Helen Thomas
Coventry Telegraph
January 24, 2012

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2012/01/24/former-coventry-priest-on-trial-accused-of-sexually-abusing-young-boys-92746-30184943/

A FORMER Coventry priest has gone on trial accused of sexually abusing eight boys over a 20-year period.

Alexander Bede Walsh denies 23 counts of indecent assault, two counts of serious sexual assaults and two of gross indecency.

The alleged offences were committed against boys aged eight to 16 between 1975 and 1994, with most taking place in the 1980s.

Walsh, 58, of Abbotts Bromley, Staffordshire, was a Roman Catholic priest at All Souls Church, in Kingsland Avenue, Chapelfields, between 1982 and 1985 before moving to Staffordshire.

A jury of seven women and five men at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court yesterday heard details of all 27 alleged offences.

The court heard Walsh was ordained in 1979 and went on to have links with various schools, religious colleges and churches in the area.

Prosecuting, Robert Price said: "The prosecution case in a nutshell is this: he sexually abused no less than eight young boys. That abuse took place in the 1970s, 1980s and in one particular instance in the 1990s.

"He was able to perpetrate that abuse because his respected and revered position within the Roman Catholic Church allowed him to have access to young boys and to groom them and manipulate them before sexually abusing them."

He said the allegations ranged in seriousness from touching to the back and legs to serious sexual assault.

Mr Price said: "They were young boys. They are now grown men. His unique position within the Church gave him access to those boys. Their families had absolute trust in the defendant.

"They trusted him as their priest, their ultimate spiritual adviser and in many cases their family friend. He held himself out as a counsellor and a friend and in that way he nurtured trust.

"He grew friendships and through his revered position gained access to the children and had a level of contact nobody else could have done.

"The boys were in awe of him. Those particularly sensitive to matters of faith saw this man as providing them with a route to God.

"He manipulated and warped the teaching and practices of the church to justify or facilitate the abuse he was perpetrating.

"He said none of it happened, that it's all lies – but it's inconceivable that eight individual victims would tell lies about this.

"None had any reason to make it up. The abuse each of them suffered had a profound effect on their lives and their ability to cope."

The court was told the first of the alleged victims was living at the Father Hudson Orphanage, in Coleshill, when the abuse took place in the late 1970s.

Six of the other alleged victims were pupils at All Souls Primary School, which had links to All Souls Church where Walsh was priest. Many said they suffered abuse at a swimming pool at another school in Coventry.

Mr Price said one of the victims "associated contact with the defendant as contact with God".

He added on one occasion, Walsh was speaking in tongues and mumbling "as if making the abuse religious".

The other alleged victim is from Staffordshire.

Judge Paul Glenn yesterday told the jury not to be influenced by other high-profile child abuse cases against members of the priesthood they may have heard about in the past.

"You have just heard a lot of allegations read out.

"The allegations that he faces are of alleged sexual offences against boys many years ago. You are going to be hearing from eight complainants, all of whom are now adults," he said.

"Cases like this can be extremely emotional. You must put all emotions to one side and evaluate the evidence carefully and dispassionately. You may have become aware of other cases against priests and members of the clergy but put those straight out of your mind.

"Every case turns on its own facts."