A FORMER Church of England priest has been jailed for 16 years for sexually assaulting a boy at the vicarage.

Ifor Whittaker, 73, was yesterday found guilty after a nine day trial at Hove Crown Court.

Previously known as Colin Pritchard, he was convicted of and sentenced for seven offences against the boy, who was then aged between ten and 14, between February 1987 and February 1991.

Whittaker was vicar of Sedlescombe at the time, and the offences took place in the vicarage there.

The court heard that in 2008 Whittaker, then Pritchard, had been sentenced to five years imprisonment at Northampton Crown Court after pleading guilty to sexual offences against two young boys while he was a vicar in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, during the 1980s.

As a result of that case he is already a registered sex offender for life.

Whittaker changed his name from Pritchard by deed poll after that case.

The Sussex investigation began in 2012 when police followed up information from the diocese that in the late 1990s the victim may have been sexually assaulted by Roy Cotton, then vicar of nearby Brede, who died in 2006, and that Whittaker, known to be a close friend of Cotton, might also have been involved.

At that stage and again in the following year, the victim discussed the way in which Cotton had assaulted him, and had met Whittaker through Cotton but did not disclose any offences by Whittaker.

In 2014 officers contacted the victim yet again to seek to resolve the enquiry, which had been part of the large Sussex Police investigation Operation Perry and which had resulted in conviction and sentencing of three other priests from the diocese for sexual offences against young boys and men.

At this point the victim disclosed that he had not been telling the full story.

He described how Whittaker had systematically abused him at the Sedlescombe vicarage.

To begin with he was only abused by Cotton at Brede, but sometimes felt that they were being watched, with Whittaker appearing in the room almost immediately afterwards.

Whittaker then invited the boy to come to Sedlescombe under the guise of doing some gardening.

He was often taken there by Cotton and would be plied with soft drink which he thought was spiked with alcohol.

Then the assaults would begin, with Whittaker telling the boy that if he spoke out nobody would believe him.

Detective Constable Chris Smith of the Sussex Police Complex Abuse Unit said: “The victim, now a man in his forties, was a vulnerable child when Whittaker took cynical advantage of him for his own sexual gratification.

“The victim told us that Cotton, although his principal abuser, ‘passed me over like a toy to be borrowed by a friend’.

“We are glad that Whittaker has finally faced justice and we have ensured that the victim, who gave evidence in court, has had access to sources of advice, counselling and support.”