Catholic Priest "Spotted Ogling Cub Scout in Shower Three Years before He Sexually Abused Schoolboys"
By Rachel Mountain
A Catholic priest was "spotted ogling a cub scout as he showered three years before he began sexually abusing schoolboys at a childrens' home", a court heard today. Father Tony McSweeney, 68, allegedly molested three youngsters at Grafton Close Children's Home in Hounslow, west London, between 1979 and 1981. Three years earlier, in 1976, he was reported by a 15-year-old boy to a Deputy Warden on a cubs retreat after he spotted McSweeney watching him as he washed, jurors heard. But the boy was told not to be 'stupid and make trouble' and even his mother dismissed his worries because a 'priest would not do anything like that'. The clergyman has also collected vile child porn over 'decades' and has a 'sexual interest in teenage boys' showering, Southwark Crown Court heard. On Trial: Father Tony McSweeney is accused of allegedly sexually abusing children at a children's home in the 1970s and 1980s He was originally charged with former children's home manager John Stingemore, 72, who was found dead weeks before the trial was due to start. McSweeney, a once part-time chaplain at Norwich City FC, was leading the congregation at St George's Church in north Norwich when the claims against him emerged. Both pensioners were accused of targeting children while Stingemore, of Stonehouse Drive, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, was in charge of the council-run home. McSweeney - who officiated at the 1990 wedding of boxing legend Frank Bruno and his ex-wife, Laura - was dressed in a black suit for the first day of his trial. The defendant, who walks with the aid of a stick, struggled to stand in the dock as jurors were sworn and listened with the aid of a hearing-loop. Prosecutor Sarah Plaschkes QC said: "The defendant Anthony McSweeney is a Catholic priest and is known as Father Tony McSweeney to many. "But we say from the time before he became a priest, he has had a sexual interest in teenage boys. "We say that over the decades, on various occasions he has had indecent images of teenage boys. "Between 1979 and 1981 he actually took indecent photographs of a teenage boy. Then in 1998 his cleaner found a video with indecent images in his home. "Finally when he was arrested in 2013 indecent images were found on his laptop. "His interest has not just been looking at such images - between 1979 and 1981 the prosecution say he sexually abused teenage boys."
McSweeney was 33 in 1980 when he used his long-term friendship with Stingemore to secure access to vulnerable boys in care, the court heard. "That gave this defendant the opportunity to sexually abuse teenage boys who were in care and away from their families," said Ms Plaschkes. "It is our case that this defendant sexually abused three boys at that childrens' home in Grafton Close, Hounslow." In the 1970s and 1980s McSweeney was involved in the scout movement and training to become a Catholic priest at St John's seminary near Guildford, Surrey. Three years before he started visiting Grafton Close, McSweeney went to Gilwell Park Scout Retreat where he met a 15-year-old boy. Ms Plaschkes said: "A few months later in about August 1976 the boy volunteered to help at a week-long event at Gilwell Park for the cubs. It was residential and there was a communal shower block. "He recalls that on one occasion he was having a shower and he heard someone say 'don't forget to wash under the foreskin'.
"He froze, he kept the front of his body away from the voice and turned his head to see who had said that," the prosecutor continued. "He saw Mr McSweeney standing about 10 feet away. He left as the young boy continued showering. "At the time he felt that someone who was training to be a priest should not have done that and that incident stayed with him for the rest of his life. "Back then he actually reported it to the Deputy Warden but he was told not to be so stupid and not to make trouble. "He also told his mother but she said that someone training to be a priest would not do anything like that. Members of the jury you have the task of deciding whether he is telling the truth. "If you are sure he is then it is a piece of evidence that supports our case that Mr McSweeney has a sexual interest in teenage boys between 14 and 16-years-old and that he had an interest in watching them shower. "You will hear of similar allegations made by three boys at Grafton Close of incidents just a couple of years later," said Ms Plaschkes. McSweeney, of Old Brighton Road North, Pease Pottage, West Sussex, denies four counts of indecent assault and one count of taking an indecent photograph of a child between 1979 and 1981. He further denies three counts of making indecent images of children between 2012 and 2013. The allegations are charged under Operation Fernbridge - a police probe into child sex abuse. The trial, which is expected to last for two weeks, continues.
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