A RETIRED priest, Timothy Biles, in the diocese of Salisbury, has been jailed for six years after being found guilty of indecent assault. The charges date to the 1960s, when he was a PE teacher and chaplain at a school in Dorset.
On 12 December, at Bournemouth Crown Court, Mr Biles, 89, of Sherborne, was found guilty of five offences of indecent assault of boys as young as 11. He was sentenced on Tuesday of last week.
The offences came to light when one victim contacted the police in 2018. A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said that Mr Biles, who denied the charges, had “exploited his position within the clergy in the worst possible way”.
He was ordained priest in 1966, and, after a short curacy in Ripon diocese, became Chaplain of St Francis School, Hooke, near Beaminster, in Dorset. In 1972, he moved to the first of a series of parochial appointments in the diocese of Salisbury. He retired in 2000.
In a statement on Mr Biles’s sentencing, the Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Revd Stephen Lake, said that the “appalling abuse” had “rightly resulted in a significant custodial sentence today. I want to thank the victims and survivors for their bravery in coming forward. I hope and pray the verdict and today’s sentence offers an opportunity to begin to heal from the trauma they have suffered.”
Mr Biles was appointed MBE for services to the Church of England four years ago (News, 12 October 2020). The Bishop said that steps were being taken to recommend its revocation of the MBE, although this decision was out of the Church’s hands; and he had acted to remove the award of the title of Canon Emeritus. Mr Biles’s permission to officiate (PTO) was withdrawn in 2022 when the diocese was made aware of the police investigation. The parish where he worshipped and occasionally assisted at services was informed.
On Monday of last week, the Team Rector in the Beaminster Area Team Ministry, Canon David Baldwin, said that Mr Biles, having not informed him that his PTO had been withdrawn, had, on a small number of occasions, been involved in services in Beaminster. The Church Times understands that this involvement amounted to leading prayers at funerals, and did not involve robing or leading a service.