LIVERPOOL VICAR PLEADS GUILTY TO ONLINE CHILD SEX OFFENCES
A vicar has admitted to engaging in perverted online chats after he was caught messaging cops who were posing as girls aged 12 and 13.Andrew Leatherbarrow, 56, from Liverpool, was set to go on trial at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, September 3, charged with child sex offences.But the vicar at All Saints Church in Stoneycroft instead pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted sexual communications with a child.
The charges came after Leatherbrow made contact with decoy accounts, which were operated by undercover cops purporting to be young girls aged 12 and 13 between January 30 and February 8 last year.Frank Dillon, prosecuting, confirmed these pleas would be deemed acceptable by the Crown Prosecution Service, with further similar counts to be ordered to lie on the file.
David Polglase, defending, told the court that his client was of 'previous positive good character' and asked for the case to be adjourned for a pre-sentence report.Leatherbarrow, of Saints Close in Old Swan, was dressed in a black suit, a white shirt, and a blue tie when he appeared in the dock with short grey hair.
He was released on conditional bail until his sentencing on October 14 and was handed an interim notification requirement.Judge Simon Medland KC told him: "You have had the enormous good sense to consider with your counsel the evidence in this case.
In light of that, you have changed your pleas to guilty.
Because you have entered guilty pleas, the sentence will be significantly lighter than would otherwise have been the case if you were to be convicted by a jury."He added: "It is manifestly in your interests, especially in a case of this nature, to speak candidly with the probation officers about the offending.
You will have bail as before.
I am required to say that that is no indication of sentence."Amid a disciplinary investigation, Leatherbarrow was suspended from his role as the vicar at All Saints Church in Stoneycroft in Liverpool— a title he has held since 2018.
He previously worked as an assistant curate at St Ann's Parish Church in Rainhill.
