FIVE years ago this week, a victim whose claims of abuse at the hands of a former clergyman were dismissed for years spoke of his relief after his attacker was finally jailed.

Peter Ridley, who had waived his right to anonymity, was speaking after the once highly-respected, now retired cleric, from Darlington, began a 12-month prison sentence, as he was led down to the cells at Durham Crown Court.

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Granville Gibson, the former Archdeacon of Auckland, was convicted on two counts of indecent assault in early August that year, on the ninth day of his trial at the court.

Returning for sentence, the 80-year-old former member of the Church ‘parliament’, the General Synod, received concurrent sentences of two and 12 months, respectively, for the offences.

He was als subject to notification as a sex offender for ten years.

The offences dated from Gibson’s time as minister at St Clare’s Church, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, in the late 1970s and early 80s.

Also that week, A LORRY driver who killed a woman and three children by ploughing into their stationary car while scrolling through music on his mobile phone was jailed for 10 years.

Tomasz Kroker, 30, smashed into the vehicle carrying Tracey Houghton, 45, her sons, Ethan Houghton, 13, and Josh Houghton, 11, and her stepdaughter, Aimee Goldsmith, 11, at 50mph on August 10 that year.

Their car was shunted underneath the back of a heavy goods vehicle and crushed to a third of its size, immediately killing the family, from Bedfordshire, at the scene on the A34 dual carriageway north of Newbury in Berkshire.

Kroker, pictured below right, from Trajan Walk, Andover, Hampshire, had pleaded guilty to four counts of causing death by dangerous driving and one count of causing serious injury by dangerous driving at Reading Crown Court on October 10. He was sentenced at the same court on Monday.

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The court had heard that Kroker, who himself had become a father five months before the incident, was so distracted by his phone that he barely looked at the road for almost a kilometre.

Meanwhile, tens of millions of pounds could have been invested across the region - including £100m just in Darlington - due to the HS2 high-speed rail project, a new Government-backed report at the time claimed.

However campaigners had said the Government had "magicked up phantom figures" and noted that the project was mainly based on the west side of the country, casting doubt on what real benefits would come to the North-East and North Yorkshire.

The report claimed that: New train links would lead to £100m of public and private investment at Darlington station creating new business space and 1,500 new homes.

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The report, Changing Britain: HS2 Taking Root, has been published by HS2 (High Speed Two), a non-departmental public body.

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