Former monk admits sexually assaulting two boys in parish

A FORMER monk at a Catholic boarding school is due to be sentenced today after admitting abusing two boys in the parish he was sent to after confessing to sexual contact with a pupil.

Peter Turner was sent away to Workington, in Cumbria, in 1987 after telling church authorities he had committed sex offences with a boy at Ampleforth College, in North Yorkshire.

The 80-year-old, who was later convicted of offences against 10 pupils at the school, pleaded guilty yesterday to sexually abusing two more boys while working in the Cumbrian parish.

He also admitted offences against another pupil at Ampleforth when he appeared for trial at York Crown Court.

Turner, previously known as Father Gregory Carroll, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of indecent assault, two counts of a serious sexual assault and one count of gross indecency against three boys aged between nine and 12.

He entered not guilty pleas to three charges of indecent assault but the court heard he will not be tried on these matters.

Turner admitted committing indecent assault and a serious sexual assault against a boy at Ampleforth between September 1984 and January 1987, when the boy was aged between 10 and 12.

He went on to indecently assault another boy, aged nine or 10, between October 1987 and December 1988.

A third boy was aged between 10 and 12 when Turner committed gross indecency and indecent assault against him between June 1987 and June 1990.

Both of those boys were abused after Turner was sent to Workington by the church following his admission of sexual abuse at Ampleforth.

He was recalled from Workington and confined to the monastery at Ampleforth after the 2001 publication of the Nolan Report into the problem of clerical child abuse. Turner was jailed for four years in September 2005 after he admitted offences against 10 pupils at the school between 1979 and 1987. The sentence was later reduced by 12 months.

Nicola Gatto, defending, said his offending stopped when he was recalled from Workington and he had been “dormant” for about 18 years.

Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, said he would sentence Turner today.