Febuary 2009 Paedophile church server jailed for molesting girl The former head server of a Cheltenham church who groped a 12-year-old girl helper has been jailed for 18 months. The judge said he had breached his position of “sacred trust”. Arthritic Colin Kingston, 72, who walks with a stick, had ruined the girl’s life when he molested her in his caravan home in October 1997, said Judge William Hart at Gloucester Crown Court. Since the offences the girl had developed anorexia and Kingston’s crime against her had been a contributory factor, the judge said. He said he was sure Kingston remained a danger to girls despite his age and infirmity. The court heard the girl’s family had all turned against the church as a result of Kingston’s offences. Kingston, a grandfather-of-three, of The Reddings, Cheltenham, had been found guilty by a jury last month of indecently assaulting the girl but he was cleared of another similar offence. The jury failed to reach verdicts on three other indecent assault charges and Judge Hart ordered that they should no longer be proceeded with. Jailing Kingston, the judge told him: “You were in a position of trust – some might say of sacred trust – towards her. You were head server and responsible for her induction as an acolyte and then young server in that church. “It was in my judgment a premeditated abuse of a young child by you, a man who has in my judgment undoubted paedophile tendencies. The effect of what you did to her has lived with her to this day.” The judge said although Kingston was now 72, in very poor health and had a “commendable employment history” there had to be a prison term. He banned Kingston indefinitely from working with children. The court heard that Kingston had a previous conviction for molesting a 15-year-old girl in 1989, for which he was jailed for 12 months. During the trial the girl told how Kingston sat her on his knee and fondled, kissed and hugged her when she was aged about 12. Kingston told the jury he had “never” touched the girl sexually and had not behaved inappropriately towards her.