Bishop apology was a joke, says youth pastor ‘rape victim’

A YOUNG woman allegedly raped by a youth pastor branded an apology from the Bishop of London as a ‘joke’, a jury heard yesterday.

Richard Chartres wrote to the alleged victim in January 2010 after she accused Timothy Storey of raping her.

The court was told he offered to ‘pray’ for her and said the aspiring vicar would be removed from theological college as a consequence of his ‘appalling’ behaviour.

But the woman said that, despite serious concerns about the junior clergyman’s conduct, no other action appeared to be taken.

In a recorded police interview, the woman accused the aspiring vicar of raping her when she was 16 after plying her with alcohol.

She described Storey as an ‘absolutely insane’ and ‘ dangerous’ man who treated her like a ‘toy for him to play with’.

Speaking about the Bishop’s letter, the woman – now aged 23 – said: ‘I thought at the time, “That’s a joke. That’s not a consequence, that’s normal. Vicars should not do this. What else are you going to do?” At the end of the letter it said, “I will pray for you this week.” I thought it was a joke. After that I never heard anything.’

Storey is on trial at Woolwich Crown Court accused of raping two young woman he met through his work in the London Diocese. The former youth worker, now 35, is also accused of meeting a third victim, a 13year- old girl, after sexually grooming her over Facebook. He denies the charges.

He was charged after the alleged victims contacted police in the wake of a Daily Mail article about his conviction for child sex offences last year. The alleged victim who received the apology from the bishop said: ‘I felt responsible for everything he had done since then. If I had spoken out at the time he would not have been able to do any of this to any of these other people.’

Yesterday, the woman said Storey was a popular figure at a Crusader Christian summer camp she attended from the age of nine. She told the jury he began sending her messages when she turned 16. They began as friendly, complimenting her clothes, but quickly became sexual.

In June 2008, she joined him in Birmingham to see a John Mayer gig after he told her he had a spare ticket. The woman said Storey groped her and plied her with vodka and lemonade until she was ‘eightand-a-half out of ten’ drunk. They missed the last train home and Storey took her by coach to his halls of residence at Oxford’s Wycliffe College.

The woman sobbed as she said: ‘As soon as he closed the door he switched, it was like he just wanted one thing – that was to have sex with me. He was not physically violent he was just dominant. His character was quite forceful and I just remember lying there thinking I have no idea how on earth to stop this happening.

‘I did not know what to do… I did not know what to say to stop that situation. It was like he was in charge and I was a toy for him to play with.’

The woman reported her concerns to the Church and was asked to give a statement at the Crusader Camp in summer 2009. But she said leaders had made her write the document ‘behind a tree’, adding: ‘I thought I would have the opportunity to talk to someone and I never got it.’

The trial continues.

‘He just wanted one thing’