Former Coventry Priest Tells Jury He Did Not Sexually Abuse Eight Young Boys

By Duncan Gibbons
Coventry Telegraph
February 2, 2012

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2012/02/02/former-coventry-priest-tells-jury-he-did-not-sexually-abuse-eight-young-boys-92746-30248224/


A FORMER Coventry priest yesterday told a jury he has never sexually assaulted young boys.

Alexander Bede Walsh, 58, is accused of abusing eight boys in Coventry, Warwickshire and Staffordshire between 1975 and 1994.

Walsh, of Church Lane, Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, denies 23 counts of indecent assault, two of sexual assault and two of gross indecency.

He trained at the Father Hudson orphanage, in Coleshill, in the mid-1970s, and was priest at All Souls Church, in Chapelfields, between 1982 and 1985.

Six of the alleged victims were pupils at All Souls School.

Giving evidence at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court yesterday, Walsh, who has a previous conviction for downloading child porn, said he enjoyed being around children, but not for any sexual motives.