Former bishop jailed for sex attacks on boy

A former bishop has been jailed for sexually abusing a boy over a five-year period while he was a priest.

Anthony Pierce, who was bishop of Swansea and Brecon between 1999 and 2008, pleaded guilty to five counts of indecent assault on a child under the age of 16.

The abuse, which included sexual touching, happened from 1985 until 1990, while Pierce was a parish priest in West Cross, Swansea.

Sentencing Pierce to four years and one month in prison at Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Catherine Richards said: "You exploited his age and your position of trust."

The Church in Wales said the allegations about this offending did not emerge until 2023 when the victim reported it to a safeguarding officer.

It was later revealed a different allegation of sexual abuse against Pierce was reported to "senior figures" in the church in 1993, 17 years before it was passed to police.

That person, believed to have been under 18 at the time, had died by the time the church informed the police in 2010.

The Church in Wales said an independent review had begun into the separate allegation of Pierces conduct.

In 2002, Pierce was made a commander of the order of St John, and in 2010 a knight of the order of St John, an honour conferred to show "exceptional" charitable service in hospital settings and for those in need.

St John Ambulance said he was no longer a member of the order.

Pierce stood down as bishop of Swansea and Brecon in January 2008, aged 67.

He was awarded an honorary fellowship by Swansea University, which the institution has now said it will review.

Following the sentencing, Monique McKevitt from the Crown Prosecution Service, described the attacks as "gross abuse of trust by a vicar" that traumatised the victim "for many years".

"Anthony Pierce was a man entrusted to preside over christenings, funerals, weddings and prayers," she added.