3:10pm Saturday 31st July 2010
By Emily Walker, Chief Reporter
A man who said he would kill a vicar to stop her from becoming a bishop has been convicted of harassment.
Christine Wilson was vicar of St Mary’s Church in Goring, in Worthing, when she began to suffer endless abuse at the hands of Nigel Abraham, last autumn.
Abraham, 50, called Mrs Wilson, who had a terminally ill daughter, “evil”.
On one occasion he even phoned her husband Alan Wilson and told him “the reason your daughter will die is because your wife is very wicked."
The couple’s daughter Sarah died just a few weeks later.
On other occasions he said he would try to kill Mrs Wilson if she became bishop and left her an answer machine message saying she was the “spitting image” of glamour model Jo Guest.
In another call he accused her of being motivated by “sex and ambition”. He also left a message on a church website that said “her only intention is to get to the top.”
She said: "I was alarmed because it looked as if he was starting up a pattern of contacting me again,"
Abraham, who now lives in Leeds, denied harassing the vicar at Leeds Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, but was found guilty.
PC Adam Speight, who arrested him, said Abraham told him: "She is evil and only interested in power. She will never be a bishop. I will do whatever I can to stop her. I would have to kill her if there was ever a chance of her becoming a bishop."
Mrs Wilson made history when she took over the top job in the Parish of Goring in 2008. Grandmother and mother of three Mrs Wilson took up the post in October 2008 and was previously vicar of St John the Baptist Church in Hove.
A spokesman for Sussex Police said they had received a number of reports about the vicar being harassed in October and November last year.
Deputy District Judge Leo Pyle, ordered pre-sentence reports on Abraham but said he was considering a community sentence.
He will be sentenced on August 11.
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