Ex-priest sentenced to life imprisonment for raping child

FORMER Vicar of Sedlescombe in East Sussex, Ifor Whittaker, 80, formerly known as Colin Ivor Pritchard, was jailed for at least eight years at Hove Crown Court after admitting raping a child. Neighborhood in the 1990s.

He pleaded guilty to the crime on October 25.

In a statement following the sentencing on Tuesday, Sussex Police said: “Whittaker gained the trust of his young victim and sexually assaulted her in the church cellar.”

The victim reported the abuse in February 2022; At this point, Whittaker was serving a 15-year prison sentence (in this case) for repeatedly abusing and conspiring with a child over a six-year period, starting in 1987 when the child was ten years old. He engaged in abuse with another former priest, Roy Cotton, who died in 2006 and was never prosecuted.

The case was examined in detail at hearings held in 2018 by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

Detective Constable Nicky Beard said on Tuesday: “Ifor Whittaker is a predator who used his position of trust in society to rape and sexually abuse young children. This level of betrayal should not be taken lightly. “Whittaker christened the victim in this investigation as a baby; he had gained the trust of his family, but he was the one who took him the most. He continued to abuse her horribly.”