52-year-old Vicar David Smith vicar of St John the Evangelist Church at Clevedon, Somerset, is being charged with 14 counts of sexual assault and indecency against seven boys, between September 1976 and May 2005.

According to the Daily Express, the Church of England authorities failed to act despite two ­separate warnings about his alleged behaviour.

Among the alleged victims, was a 12-year-old boy the Vicar brought to Malta for a holiday. The child tried to break off contact soon thereafter however in a Court hearing on Monday it emerged that Rev. David Smith deluged him with letters and phone calls begging him to see him.

Brendon Moorhouse who is leading the prosecution said some of the letters were destroyed but the child’s mother managed to retain some others. According to the Daily Express, one read “I’ve been left feeling like a much-loved pet that no longer gets fed or walked because you have found other interests. Wouldn’t it be better to set the pet free rather than keep him locked up in a cage just in case he is wanted again.”

Rev. David Smith allegedly started abusing youngsters while an assistant housemaster at a prep school in 1976 and continued after becoming a parish priest in 1979, it was said. The alarm was first raised in the 1980s by the mother of a 15-year-old boy. But church officials simply moved him to another parish, Bristol Crown Court was told.

According to the Daily Express, he was later recognised by one of his alleged victims when he appeared on television to speak of the death of his cousin in the attacks on the Twin Towers, USA, on the 9th September 2001.  

The alleged victim immediately contacted church authorities and although he was assured that action would be taken against the Vicar, Smith went on to extensively abuse another boy, it was claimed in court on Monday.  

Between 1976 and 1979, the Vicar allegedly indecently assaulted three 13-year-old boys at a boys’ prep school in Berkshire, where he worked as assistant housemaster. After his ordination in 1979, the man became an assistant curate at Wotton-under-Edge, Glos, where the prosecution claimed that he indecently assaulted a 15-year-old boy before the victim’s mother alerted the police.  

In 1993 he became vicar of St John, Clevedon, where he visited a local junior school and invited pupils to join the church choir. He allegedly used the opportunity to sexually assault boys whom he befriended over a period from January 1998 to April 2005. Among these pupils, was the alleged victim who was brought to Malta on holiday with the Vicar.

The trial continues.