A RESPECTED Roman Catholic churchman carried out sex assaults on boys in his younger days, a court heard.

Father David Taylor was yesterday jailed for twoand- a-half years for offences committed while serving as youth chaplain for the Roman Catholic diocese of Hexham and Newcastle.

Durham Crown Court heard the boys were aged between 12 and 16. The assaults took place in Seaham, County Durham, and on Holy Island, Northumberland.

Taylor made admissions when confronted last year.

The 59-year-old, of Northumberland Avenue, Bedlington, Northumberland, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to five charges of indecent assault.

Peter Walsh, in mitigation, presented character references on Taylor’s behalf.

Mr Walsh said: “It’s clear from the way Father Taylor has conducted himself through these investigations that he has done all he can to rectify the wrong he clearly recognises he committed.

“Certainly I can find no criticism as to how the Catholic church dealt with this case, but, maybe, it was slow to recognise the expectations of a young, naive, vulnerable priest when he was given a task in the Eighties.

“He had no qualifications, no youth leader training and no previous responsibility and was sent to provide guidance with little funding, no help, no management committee or team leader.”

Jailing him, Judge Guy Whitburn said: “The abuse they suffered at your hands was persistent, certainly in the cases of two.”

Speaking after the hearing, Father Dennis Tindall, child protection co-ordinator for the diocese, said: “The whole Catholic community feels the pain of this.”

He added that Taylor would “never work as a priest again”.

Taylor was disqualified from working with children, and must sign the Sex Offenders’ Register, for life.