Former Langdale Vicar Jailed for Sexual Assault on Teenager

Westmorland Gazette
May 7, 2013

http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/10404316.Former_Langdale_vicar_jailed_for_sexual_assault_on_teenager/?ref=nt

A VICAR who sexually assaulted a teenager after becoming infatuated by his physique has been sent to prison for eight months.

Andrew Folks, 70, was priest-in-charge of the Langdale parish at the time he got to know the boy, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

As the boy grew up the married clergyman became more and more obsessed by his good looks, prosecuting counsel Katie Jones said.

And when the boy was about 15 Folks fondled the muscles on his chest and abdomen for his own sexual gratification, and then asked to look inside his trousers and touch his private parts, she said.

Folks – who is now retired and lives with his wife in Winfield Road, Sedbergh - pleaded guilty to one charge of sexually assaulting the boy and one of attempting to do so.

On top of the prison sentence he was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for ten years.

But the judge, Recorder Tina Landale, declined to impose a sexual offences prevention order to ban him having unsupervised contact with young people, because, she said, his age made him unlikely to commit any more such offences A spokesman for the Diocese of Carlisle said in a statement: “We are shocked and saddened at what has happened. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the victim and his family.

“We know that the people of Langdale will be very deeply upset and will feel betrayed by his actions, as at the time his ministry was valued by many of his parishioners. As a diocese we have provided, and will continue to provide, pastoral care for the community of Langdale.”