Married former bishop convicted of sex offences against two women
A former bishop who groped two women has been convicted of sexually assaulting his victims.
Retired churchman Michael Ward abused his position and attacked the unsuspecting women while he was working, a jury had been told.
The married man denied the offences but jurors convicted him of three sexual assaults on Thursday.
Ward, who was also acquitted of a further count of sexual assault, was told he will be sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on August 3.
The sex offender is a former serving bishop of The Old Catholic Church which has its UK headquarters in Rugeley.
During the three-day trial, jurors heard how the ‘jolly Friar Tuck’-style bishop assaulted his first victim two years ago.
Mr Andrew Wallace, prosecuting, said: “He may think of himself as a jovial Friar Tuck, giving friendly hugs and always joking but the reality is different.
“He is someone who likes to take advantage of his position to touch females inappropriately.”
The former churchman squeezed one victim’s backside during a gathering to bless a room in her mother’s house.
Defence barrister Miss Sharon Bailey had argued Ward nudged the woman’s backside and suggested the victim may have over reacted.
But the victim retorted: “He is a bishop, a man in authority. He had no right putting his hands on my body.”
Her stepfather conceded in evidence that she was ‘sensitive about being touched in anything like a suggestive way’.
Retired police officer Anthony Ford also told the court he was at the blessing in August 2016, when he spotted the defendant touch the woman’s backside while outside in the garden.
The sex offender was also convicted of sexually assaulting a second woman in her London home last autumn.
He had been helping to arrange a funeral for the victim’s late grandmother when he ‘fiddled’ with her bra and undid it as he cuddled her.
She went on to say she was left ‘inconsolable’ when Ward touched her chest while telling a ‘rude’ joke on a separate occasion at her home.
Ward, of Water Lane, Edmonton, London, protested his innocence when he gave evidence during his trial.
Jurors heard how the former bishop claimed he tried to be ‘light-hearted’ while talking to people about funeral services.
He had officiated more than 800 funerals and never received any complaints, the court was told.
Ward told jurors: “I did not purposefully fiddle with her bra or open it. When I left, she seemed ok to me.”
