Ex-vicar sentenced for non-recent sex offences in Chichester

Meirion Griffiths, 81, formerly of Coachwood Way in Perth, Australia, was sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court on Friday. He was convicted on 13 January after a six-day re-trial of two counts of indecent assault against a girl then in her late teens in the mid-70’s, one of them involving multiple occasions, and two counts of indecent assault against a woman, then in her mid-twenties, in 1982, police said. He had been found not guilty of two counts of indecent assault, one against each of the women, according to police. At Winchester Crown Court on 7 August 2019, a jury had failed to agree on verdicts over the same six counts against Griffiths after an eight-day trial, and was discharged. All the offences took place in Chichester or other nearby locations in West and East Sussex, police said. The prosecution followed an investigation by Sussex Police detectives after the allegations were received in 2014, when both victims came forward independently. Detective Constable Jo French said: “Griffiths, by virtue of his position as local vicar, came to know them quite separately, and gained their confidence in order to systematically abuse their trust in him for his own sexual gratification.” She said the abuse had had ‘a profound impact’ on the victims and said: “They have supported our investigation and gave evidence at both trials. “We admire their resilience and courage in doing so.” Griffiths, who emigrated to Western Australia in 1988, was arrested there on an extradition warrant in November 2017. He was extradited to the UK in January 2019 to face trial. Throughout the investigation police had full co-operation from the Chichester Diocese of the Church of England, police said. Police have emphasised that there are no current safeguarding issues or risks for anyone connected to St Pancras Church in relation to this case. SEE MORE: New health food bar and yoga studio proposed for Chichester city centre Motorcyclist taken to hospital after crash in Arundel Bognor post office to reopen four months after closure