A former Church of England clergyman has been jailed for 11 years for abusing two altar boys in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Rev Julian Wheeler was a curate and vicar at two churches in North Devon in the 1980s and 1990s when he groomed the church-going schoolboys and abused them at their homes or his rectory.

He got access to the boys through his job which enabled him to befriend their mothers. He abused both while they stayed with him overnight or he went to their homes, ostensibly to help with homework. 

The boys were aged ten to 14 and 13 to 14 when Wheeler abused them. He exploited his position of trust as a clergyman and religious education teacher at a local secondary school to cover up what he was doing.

The abuse caused both boys lifelong psychological harm. One kept his trauma secret until he broke down in front of his wife when his own son reaching the age of ten triggered flashback more than 30 years after he was abused. 

He wrote in an impact statement that he had contemplated throwing himself off a cliff because of what he went through at the time.  

The other said: “I was a young, timid child and I trusted Wheeler as a teacher and a clergyman. The church was a place where I should have been safe and respected. I did not know I was being groomed.

“I don’t understand how he could have subjected me to such abuse when he must have seen how vulnerable I was.” 

Wheeler was a non-stipendiary curate and priest at St Mary’s Bideford and St Helen’s Abbotsham, where both boys were members of the congregation and altar boys. He later left the Church of England and became a Roman Catholic.

He claimed to be ‘passively bisexual’ and impotent as a result of a motorcycle crash in 1966. He told the jury the allegations were invented and the case against him had been choreographed.

Wheeler, aged 75 of Mount Raleigh Avenue, Bideford, denied but was found guilty of 13 counts of indecent assault by a jury at Exeter Crown Court and jailed for 11 years by Judge James Adkin.

He put him on the sex offenders’ register for life and told him that the most serious offences would now be categorised as sexual activity with a child and attempted rape.

He said: “This was serious sexual abuse. The breach of trust was significant in the circumstances of you being a clergyman and a father figure to the boys. You were significantly trusted in the community and you exploited that to use them for sex.” 

During the trial the boys, now adults, told how the abuse started with touching over clothes and developed into more serious sexual activity, culminating in an attempt at oral sex which would now be categorised as attempted rape.

One of the boys complained to the police in 1998 but was persuaded by other parishioners to withdraw the allegation during a visit to Buckfast Abbey in South Devon. He agreed to do so and Wheeler remained in his job.

He was interviewed again after the other boy went to the police in 2022 after telling his partner about his childhood experiences. The other boy was traced and reaffirmed his original allegations.

Wheeler was barred from contact with children by the Diocese of Exeter in 2005 after a complaint from a third boy who was asked to rub lotion into the vicar’s thigh.

The Diocese of Exeter released a statement after the verdict.

The Acting Bishop of Exeter, the Rt. Rev’d Jackie Searle, said: “Today’s sentence is a reflection of the extremely serious crimes committed by Julian Wheeler. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and survivors of his abuse, their friends and families, and all who have suffered as a result of his actions. 

“I hope the justice done today will bring some peace to all affected by this case, including the communities where he lived and worked. It is deeply disturbing and shocking that vulnerable children were abused by a member of clergy who had a duty of care to protect them.”

The diocese said support had been offered to all those who came forward in this case. 

The safeguarding team haas been working with the statutory authorities and, as per our House of Bishops safeguarding guidance, we will now be reviewing every aspect of this case to establish what lessons could be learnt from it. 

Anyone who would like to speak to someone in confidence relating to this case, or about any other safeguarding matter is asked to conctact the diocese’s safeguarding team: https://exeter.anglican.org/resources/safeguarding/safeguarding-team/