Retired Brighton and Hove priest jailed for child sex abuse

A retired Church of England priest has been jailed for 18 months at Hove Crown Court for sexually abusing two teenage boys.

Father Keith Wilkie Denford, 78, of Broad Reach Mews, Shoreham, was convicted of indecent assault last month.

The offences happened between 1987 and 1990 when Denford was the vicar of St John the Evangelist Church in Burgess Hill.

He was previously the curate at St Peter’s Church in Brighton, serving there from 1966 to 1971.

Since retiring in 1996 he has officiated and preached in several churches in Brighton and Hove and the surrounding area.

Church organist Michael Mytton, 69, of East Chiltington, near Lewes, was also sentenced today (Thursday 9 May) after also being convicted last month.

Judge Paul Tain gave him a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years for indecently assaulting another boy.

He was made the subject of a sex offender programme and ordered to be supervised for two years.

Both men had denied the charges.