Mum Tells Court Her Daughter Was "like Different Person" after Alleged Abuse

By David Millward
Get Reading
May 20, 2014

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/mum-tells-court-daughter-like-7128506

Jury at Reading Crown Court heard the mother describe how her child, when she was 12, acted like a teenager going through puberty

The mother of a woman who claims to have been abused by a vicar when she was 11 years old told a court how her daughter’s behaviour changed suddenly after the incidents were alleged to have happened.

A jury at Reading Crown Court on Wednesday heard the mother describe how her child, when she was 12, acted like a teenager going through puberty and she could not understand why, until her daughter told her about the alleged assaults many years later.

Brian Spence, 74, who was priest-in-charge at St Mary’s Church, in Englefield, before retiring, denies nine counts of indecent assault involving four girls under-16 between 1995 and 1999.

The first victim to give evidence told the court Spence, now of Nursery Close, Hook, had hugged her, put his hand down her shorts and touched her indecently on a day when she was part of the church choir singing at a series of weddings in Crowthorne, where Spence was then vicar.

She said she did not tell her parents about what had happened until September 2012 and then the police were called in.

Elisabeth Bussey-Jones, prosecuting, asked the mother if she had noticed any difference in her daughter when she was 12.

She said: “She changed towards Brian and she began to say things to me like vicars are all perverts.

“I dismissed that a little at the time and would say, ‘you can’t go around saying things like that about people’.”

She continued: “She became very emotional. She would burst into tears over something that was nothing.

“She would run upstairs and slam the door, crying, She was a 12-year-old behaving like she was a much older teenager.”

The mum said her daughter urged her to accompany her younger sister to confirmation classes rather than leave her alone with Spence.

She said her daughter told her about the alleged attacks over the phone years later and she said the police should be involved.

Earlier, Alexia Durran, defending, cross-examined the alleged victim and asked her about contacting other past choir girls through social media.

She said: “Have you been doing more research, trying to drum up more people so they can join you in making accusations against Mr Spence?”

To which the woman responded: “No, that’s not true.”

Miss Durran also asked the woman about her mother’s alleged attempts to receive funding from the church to help pay for her studies to achieve the Bishops Chorister exams.

She claimed that when no money was forthcoming, she turned to Spence but he too was unable to help.

Miss Durran said: “You and your mother harboured a grudge against Mr Spence because he hadn’t helped you out financially in something that was very important to you.”

The woman denied this and said: “I had ill feelings towards Brian Spence because of an event which happened when I was 11 years old.”

Miss Durran said: “All Mr Spence is guilty of is hugging children, allowing children to sit on his knee and you, perhaps with a fertile teenage imagination categorised this as being pervy.”

The woman replied: “No, that’s not true.” The trial continues.