Meleri Grug Williams
BBC News
Reporting fromSwansea Crown Court
Wales News Service
A former bishop has been jailed for sexually abusing a boy over a five-year period while he was a priest.
Anthony Pierce, 84, who was bishop of Swansea and Brecon between 1999 and 2008, pleaded guilty to five counts of indecent assault on a child under the age of 16.
Swansea Crown Court heard the abuse, which included sexual touching, happened from 1985 until 1990, while Pierce was a parish priest in West Cross, Swansea.
Sentencing Pierce to four years and one month – half of which he will serve behind bars before spending the rest on licence – Judge Catherine Richards said: “You exploited his age and your position of trust.”
Reading a statement in court, the victim said he remembered “exactly how I felt as the abuse took place” and had “an overwhelming sense of embarrassment, as I could not feel the courage to say no”.
“I have very low self-esteem and self-worth. I do not have friends. I feel trapped as I’m unable to move past the trauma of what happened,” he said.
He added he felt an “overwhelming sense of relief” after speaking out and felt like he had been “released from something that’s had a hold over me all these years”.
Prosecutor Dean Pulling told the court the abuse was “completely uninvited and unwanted”.
Addressing Pierce, Judge Richards added: “There’s only one person who should feel shame for what took place and that is you.”
In 2002, Pierce was made a commander of the order of St John, and in 2010 a knight of the order of St John, an honour conferred to show “exceptional” charitable service in hospital settings and for those in need.
St John Ambulance said he was no longer a member of the order.
Pierce stood down as bishop of Swansea and Brecon in January 2008, aged 67.
He was awarded an honorary fellowship by Swansea University, which the institution has now said it will review.
Following the sentencing, Monique McKevitt from the Crown Prosecution Service, described the attacks as “gross abuse of trust by a vicar” that traumatised the victim “for many years”.
“Anthony Pierce was a man entrusted to preside over christenings, funerals, weddings and prayers,” she added.
