Former Coventry priest denies sex abuse claims

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A FORMER Coventry priest has taken to the stand at his trial to deny a string of sex abuse allegations against young boys.

Richard James Robinson refuted the claims at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday.

He also told the court he was unaware of any sex abuse claims when he emigrated to California in the same year as the first allegations were made to police.

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The ex-clergyman told the jury he never touched any of the alleged victims, while they were young boys in the Midlands between the late 1950s and mid-1980s.

Defence barrister Rachel Brand QC said: “We have heard evidence from men who say when they were boys you touched them sexually in a whole host of ways. Did you do that?”

Robinson replied: “No”.

The former priest also told the court of his amateur and professional boxing career, which took him to fights across the Midlands and to London.

The abuse is alleged to have taken place before and during his time as a Catholic priest at several locations across the Midlands, including a two-year period at St Elizabeth’s church in Foleshill.

The first complaint made to the police by one of Robinson’s alleged victims took place in 1985. The most recent in 2009.

Robinson was arrested by West Midlands Police officers at Heathrow airport after being extradited from California last year.

Yesterday the jury acquitted Robinson of a further count of serious sexual assault, on the directions of the judge.

When asked for his reasons for leaving the West Midlands to live in California, Robinson said he had planned to go to America for a “long time”.

He added: “I was very sick. I had had a heart attack. I had a note from my doctor saying the heat of California would suit me and I would be better off there.”

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news...z12t1J6JfC