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Paedophile priest who abused boys while working as scout leader is jailed
By Neil Docking
A paedophile priest who abused three boys while working as a scout leader was jailed for four years. John Michael Creagh, 79, was handed nine months in prison in 1992 after molesting a boy at a Roman Catholic boarding school in Berkshire. Today, Liverpool Crown Court heard how the pervert had previously been a scoutmaster in Ormskirk . He sexually abused three scouts in the 1970s, when he was in his late 30s, but the offences only came to light last year. Judge Norman Wright said: “For your own selfish sexual desires you have cast a blight over the lives of some of those boys. “This was a gross breach of trust. You were the scoutmaster charged with the welfare of the young scouts in your care and you totally abused that position.” The court heard Creagh had been a “highly regarded individual within the community” and “ingratiated himself” into the children’s families. David Potter, prosecuting, said Creagh grabbed the first scout inappropriately over his clothing when they were alone in a scout hut. Creagh then repeatedly attacked him at his then home in St Helens Road, after showing the boy pornographic magazines. Mr Potter said the victim did not report the abuse as he did not think he would be believed. The prosecutor said: “Although some 40 years ago, he said there has hardly been a day when he hasn’t thought about the times when this defendant did this to him.” Creagh took the second boy on a camping holiday in Wales, when the victim thought other children would be present, but ended up sharing a tent with just Creagh. The pervert had a stash of pornography with him and asked the victim “whether he was a bad boy” before sexually assaulting him. Mr Potter said the petrified boy spent the rest of the night wrapped tightly in his sleeping bag trying to fend off the paedophile, but felt too embarrassed to tell anyone. Creagh attacked the third scout after grooming him with presents including records and taking him to the cinema. Creagh, now of Douglas Drive, Orrell, Wigan, pleaded guilty to five counts of indecent assault. After he left Ormskirk he was ordained as a priest and became deputy house master at Douai Abbey School – a boarding school in Reading run by Benedictine monks. He admitted gross indecency and two counts of indecent assault after targeting a 12-year-old boy in similar circumstances. David Watson, defending, said Creagh was sent on an eight-month residential sex offenders course run by the church. He said Creagh and those who supported him, including his boyfriend in the public gallery, would say his remorse was genuine. Judge Wright handed Creagh an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and told him to sign on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely. Speaking after the case, DC Catherine Thomas, from Lancashire Police , said Creagh subjected the boys to “appalling sexual abuse”.
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