Website Brings Priest's Abuse To Light

A Catholic priest's molestation of young schoolgirls in Gloucestershire was uncovered after two of his victims compared memories on website Friends Reunited.

Father Peter Carr, 73, of Orbel Street, Battersea, London, who was a teacher at the Salesian School in Blaisdon, Gloucestershire, during the 1960s and 1970s, indecently assaulted seven girls by rubbing stage paint into their naked bodies during school plays.

The woman, now in their 40's, who had both appeared in pantomimes realised that the priest had made them both strip off their clothes before applying body paint with a sponge to intimate areas of their bodies. Later he had helped to wash it off and told them not to say anything to their friends or families.

Carr was convicted of eight charges of indecent assault against six women after a trial in Gloucester Crown Court in December that could not be reported until now.

Carr has pleaded guilty to two further charges against a seventh victim.

The jury heard Carr claim he "only wanted to put on good show" and had no other motive.

Ian Dixie, prosecuting, said: "They were at a Catholic school and priests were viewed as God's messengers on Earth. You did not question something you were asked to do by a priest."

(GK/JM)