British Ex-canon Jailed for Teen Sex Abuse
The Australian
A FORMER canon of a British cathedral has been jailed for four years for sexually abusing three teenage boys. Ronald Johns, the 75-year-old former canon of Carlisle Cathedral in northern England, had pleaded guilty to sexual offences against three boys from 1983 to 1991. The victims were aged between 14 and 17 at the time. "As you accept, you have ruined your life and brought disgrace upon yourself," judge Rabinder Singh said as he sentenced the former clergyman on Monday. The court heard that when the allegations were first made in 1993, Johns' bishop demoted him to a village parish instead of telling police. The claims only came to the attention of the police this year when another man complained he had been abused by Johns. Ian Harland, the bishop who demoted him instead of informing the police, died three years ago. Johns was jailed for three years for two counts of indecent assault and four counts of gross indecency in relation to one victim. He received additional sentences of six months each for acts of gross indecency on the two other teenagers. His lawyer John Morgans said that Johns felt "total remorse". "All he asks me to do is to apologise," Morgans told the court. "He is sorry because he has betrayed the church he loves." The current Bishop of Carlisle, James Newcome, apologised for the church's failure to report the abuse at the time. A spokesman for Carlisle Diocese said: "A prison sentence can never be a matter of pleasure, nor can it put right wrongs that were done, but the sentence given to Ronald Johns today is just and fair and reflects the gravity of his offences." Three other former Church of England priests have been charged this year with historic sexual offences against children. Two more, including a retired bishop, were arrested last week over allegations of abuse against boys and young men in the 1980s and 1990s.
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