Sex Abuse Man Ran Polegate Children’s Home

Eastbourne Herald
April 12, 2013

http://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/news/local-news/sex-abuse-man-ran-polegate-children-s-home-1-4991052

A former church organist facing prison for sexually abusing boys ran a children’s home in Polegate in the 1980s.

Michael Mytton, also known as Mark Mytton, is believed to have been at the home in Polegate although county council records do not date back that far.

Sixty-nine-year-old Mytton, also a former choirmaster, was convicted last Friday of sexual offences against boys between 23 and 26 years ago.

Mytton, of East Chiltington, and priest Keith Wilkie Denford, 78 and from Shoreham, were convicted at Hove Crown Court after a three-week trial.

The case was adjourned for sentencing on Thursday May 2, and the defendants remain on bail until then.

Denford, who had links to Eastbourne as a practising priest, was convicted of two indecent assaults on a boy then under 16 and one indecent assault on another boy, also aged under 16 on dates between June 1987, and January 1990

He was found not guilty of a third charge of indecent assault against the first boy.

Mytton was convicted of three counts of indecently assaulting a boy under 16 between 1990 and 1994.

He was found not guilty of one count of aiding and abetting Denford in an alleged indecent assault over which Denford was found not guilty, and was also found not guilty of two counts of indecent assault against another boy.

Detective Constable Lee Scott said, “We admire the courage of the victims in coming forward and being ready to stand up in court. Sussex Police takes all reports of sexual offences extremely seriously, no matter when they are alleged to have happened.”

A statement issued on behalf of the Bishop of Chichester Dr Martin Warner, said, “The diocese fully acknowledges the suffering caused both to survivors of abuse and their families.”