Retired Suffolk priest jailed for sexual abuse of boys

A retired Anglican priest from Suffolk has been jailed for sexually abusing young boys. Father Hayley Dossor from Kirton near Felixstowe carried out the assaults while he ran a church youth group in the early 90s.

The judge at Norwich Crown Court told the 71-year-old grandfather he was guilty of a very serious breach of trust. Here's Malcolm Robertson's report.

A retired Anglican priest who sexually abused teenage boys has been jailed. Father John Haley Dossor, pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault relating to two boys aged as young as 13.

Norwich Crown Court also heard that Dossor accepted he had abused a third boy between 15 and 20 times, although he was not charged with these attacks.

The offences happened when the 71-year-old, of Kirton, near Felixstowe, Suffolk, was working at St Mary's Church in Hadleigh in the early 1990s.

Jailing Dossor for one year and 10 months, Judge Mark Lucraft said: "You sexually abused these teenage boys who were committed to your care for recreation and education.

"As a clergyman you were in a position where people looked up to you and respected you. "

The judge made a sexual offences prevention order lasting five years and placed Dossor on the sex offenders' register.

Dossor, who attended court with his wife of 46 years, was ordained in 1991 after previously working as a sales director at Stephen Walters and Sons silk weavers in Sudbury, the court was told.

After his role in Hadleigh, he went on to become priest in charge of St Mary at the Elms between 2001 and 2007, when he retired.