THE Rector of St Mary’s, Hadleigh, and Dean of Bocking, the Very Revd Martin Thrower, has ap­­peared in court charged with filming young men in public lavatories.

Dean Thrower did not enter a plea to eight charges of voyeurism when he appeared at Ipswich Magis­trates’ Court on Monday.

The alleged offences took place between 2014 and this year. The court heard that he allegedly filmed a 17-year-old boy who was in the adjoining lavatory cubicle at a shopping centre in Ipswich. The priest was arrested in August, and his case was sent to Ipswich Crown Court on Monday, with a first hearing set for 17 January.

The Dean, who is 55, was sus­pended by the diocese of St Ed­­mundsbury & Ipswich when he was arrested. A spokes­man said on Mon­­day: “Martin Thrower remains suspended from all Church roles at this time, and it would be inap­prop­riate to comment until the legal process is complete.”

At the time of his arrest, his wife, Pauline Thrower, told the East Ang­lian Daily Times that, while the news had come as a shock, she and the rest of his family would support him. “It is with great sadness that we find ourselves in the situation we are now in,” she said. “Whilst this has come as a shock to us . . . we are all supporting Martin with un­­con­di­tional love at this difficult time.”