Former vicar jailed for child abuse

Isle of Wight County Press
July 28, 2014

http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/news/former-vicar-jailed-for-child-abuse-61909.aspx

A FORMER Isle of Wight vicar has been jailed for abusing a teenage boy.

Maxwell Crosby Halahan, 84, committed a series of sex offences against the boy between 1974 and 1977, while he was the parish priest at St Faith's Church, Cowes.

He was sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court on Thursday to 21 months in prison.

Richard Powell, senior prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Wessex Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit, said after the sentencing: "Maxwell Halahan abused his position of authority as vicar in his parish. He abused the boy, who is now an adult but was only 13 years of age when the abuse started.

"Halahan had already been convicted of similar offences in 2011. There is no doubt he is a sexual predator who did not hesitate to take advantage of his position as a 'pillar of the society’ at the time to abuse young boys.

"The victim in this case has shown great courage in coming forward after living with the memory of the abuse for all these years.

"This, we hope, will encourage anyone who has been the victim of such crime to report it to the police. CPS Wessex Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit works very closely with the police and relentlessly to bring these types of cases to court.

"We trust this prosecution will bring some closure to the victim of this horrible crime."

In 2011, Halahan was sentenced to three years in prison for similar offences.

He was made subject to a safeguarding order and ordered to sign the sexual offences register for ten years.