Former chaplain and teacher at Wolverhampton school known as 'Father Eddie' is jailed
A "trusted" former chaplain and teacher at a Wolverhampton school who used his position to abuse two of his pupils has been jailed for nearly three years.
Edward Phillip-Smith, known as 'Father Eddie' at St Peters Collegiate School committed the historic sex offences against two boys who were pupils at the school in the 1980s.
They came to light when complaints were made by the two men, who were 11 and 12 at the time and cannot be named, in May and October last year.
Oxford Crown Court heard Phillip-Smith, now aged 73, was "widely loved" by pupils at the Compton based school where he worked as a chaplain and Religious Education teacher and "used to playfully put pupils on his knee and would tickle them".
He was known for taking pupils away at weekends and in the school holidays to his home and it was at one of these retreats that the offences occurred, the court heard.
Fern Russell, prosecuting, said: "He would take them into his home and they would think nothing of it because they trusted him as 'Father Eddie' - who made them laugh and provided a fun element of going to school which would often prove quite drab and humdrum for young boys.
"But on this occasion when he took them away there was a thunderstorm and he took the two defendants into his bed, where they thought they would be safe and protected from what was happening outside.
