November 2015 Paedophile priest who hid previous convictions jailed A paedophile Mormon priest who hid his previous convictions from church elders has been jailed. Brian Horrobin, 57, was jailed in 2013 for grooming and sexually abusing a boy and a girl he met through the Anglican church in the 1970s. The victims kept their silence for more than 40 years but when the woman went to a church service and saw Horrobin among the congregation she reported him to the police. But following his release from prison, Horrobin, formerly of Leyland, changed his surname and moved to a new town where he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. Using the surname Ashton, Horrobin was baptised into the Mormon church and shortly after ordained as an Aaronic priest – proudly displaying his certificated on the wall of his flat in Wigan, Greater Manchester. In May 2015, Horrobin was ordained into the Melchizedek priesthood – a position of authority reserved for men who meet standards of worthy behaviour and church participation. But at no stage did he disclose he had a previous conviction for indecently assaulting the youngsters and was banned from seeking paid or voluntary work which would bring him into contact with children under the terms of his Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO). When police officers called at his flat on a routine monitoring visit, Horrobin had taken his certificates down from the wall in a bid to conceal his involvement with the church. Following his arrest he claimed he had removed the certificates when he was dusting but later pleaded guilty to breaching his SOPO. Judge Heather Lloyd, sentencing at Preston Crown Court, said: “That SOPO was put in place to prevent you from any further opportunity to sexually abuse a child during any paid or voluntary work. “When you decided to join the Mormon church and when you have risen in the congregation and priesthood you deliberately failed to disclose your history and the restrictions on your employment. You must have known that your priestly duties were likely to entail unsupervised contact with children and because of your priestly role other parents were likely to trust you with their children. “It was a deliberate decision to deceive and hide the truth from the church just as it was a deliberate decision to hide your certificates from the police when they visited you. They weren’t taken down because you were dusting. They were taken down because if the police were aware of your position in the church they would have arrested you. “Although no unsupervised contact took place that was likely to be your intention. “Once again you have insinuated yourself into the church to gain access to children, whether that is in Sunday school or within the church.” He was jailed for 11 months and ordered he must be supervised by the probation service for a year after his release. May 2015: Now living in Wigan January 2012 Disabled man is jailed for 1970s sex assaults A disabled grandfather has been jailed for three years for a string of sex offences against two children dating back to the 1970s. Brian Horrobin was convicted of five counts of indecent assault against the youngsters after a trial at Preston Crown Court. The court heard Horrobin, of Jubilee Court in Leyland, assaulted a young girl on three occasions. In a separate incident, Horrobin, now 54, assaulted a young boy twice when he shared a tent with him in a garden. Walking on sticks, Horrobin entered the dock to hear his fate, more than 30 years after he committed the offences. Passing sentence, Judge Stuart Baker said: “In both cases there was an element of breach of trust, most seriously in connection with the girl for whom you were baby-sitting. “These offences were carried out with some persistence and it caused her some distress. “She told the jury that when you were offending against her she was scared to tell anyone. “She felt powerless to stop you from doing what you were doing.” He said the girl was frightened to tell anyone as Horrobin had told her the offences were “their secret”. The boy also felt no-one would believe him if he told them what had happened in the tent, he said. The court heard the boy had managed to move on with his life but when contacted by police 30 years later it brought back “painful memories”. Horrobin, who was in his 20s at the time, suffers a number of medical conditions, including epilepsy, asthma, diabetes, pulmonary disorder and angina, the court was told. The court heard he had led an “honest and decent life” since the offences were committed, having married and raised four children. Philip Andrews, defending said: “It is a wholly different man who stands before you than the very young man who committed these offences to which he has been found guilty of, all those years ago.” Judge Baker said: “There was a very great disparity in your ages. “You were a man in your 20s. They were under 11. “Each offence was committed in what can only be described as a very great breach of trust.” He added: “It is obvious to anyone that, although there will be facilities within the prison setting which will provide you with the appropriate medical treatment and care, it will inevitably be harder for a man of your physical condition and many problems to endure a prison sentence than it would be for a man of younger years and with no medical conditions to contend with.” Horrobin was jailed for two years for three offences against the girl. The judge sentenced him to a further 12 months for two offences against the young boy. He was also made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) banning him from having unsupervised contact with children. It also bans him from having children in his home or from seeking employment which would bring him into contact with children. He was ordered to sign on to the sex offenders register indefinitely.