Wirral Priest Father Peter Hooper Priest Admits Having Sex with 14-Year-Old Boy
By Gary Stewart
A MERSEYSIDE priest was told he is facing a lengthy jail sentence after admitting having sex with an underage boy. Father Peter Hooper from St Luke's Church in Bebington, Wirral, pleaded guilty to ten charges involving sexual activity with the teenager and inciting him to engage in such activity. The offences are alleged to have take place at the St Luke the Physician diocese house in Church Road, Bebington, where regular masses are held in a small chapel. The charges, involving the boy when he was aged 14 and 15, span a six month period ending on May 5 this year. The 55-year-old priest, now of no fixed abode, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court before Judge David Aubrey, QC, who warned him that he will receive a jail sentence. He said: "You have entered pleas of guilty to this indictment that contains 10 counts. "They are grave offences and it is inevitable that you will receive an immediate custodial sentence of some length." He said that because of his early guilty plea Hooper's sentence would be reduced by a third. He adjourned the sentence until June 15 to enable a pre-sentence report to be prepared. Bespectacled Hooper, who was wearing a grey sweatshirt and dark trousers, was further remanded in custody at HMP Liverpool Shrewsbury-born Father Hooper's parish included the districts of Lower Bebington, Spital, Poulton Lancelyn, Clatterbridge, Thornton Hough and Brimstage. He was appointed priest at St Luke's in 2006, after leaving St Werburgh's, in Chester. He was a governor at Christ The King primary school, in Bromborough and St John's junior school in New Ferry and assisted with the chaplaincy at St John Plessington Catholic College, Bebington. In the wake of his arrest the Bishop of Shrewsbury, Mark Davies, was sent to the parish of St Luke's to celebrate mass. The Rt Rev. Mark Davies issued a statement in response to the guilty plea entered by Father Peter Hooper. He said: "The crimes to which Father Peter Hooper has entered a guilty plea are a terrible betrayal of the young and of the priesthood itself. "This criminal conduct will never be tolerated in the life of the Church and there can be no place in the priesthood for those who commit such crimes." Contact: gary.stewart@liverpool.com
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