An Anglican vicar who smoked crystal meth, boasted of corrupting young boys, abused animals, and discussed sacrificing babies to Satan with online paedophiles has been convicted in England.
Reverend David Renshaw, 63, was convicted of “three counts of possessing indecent images of children; three counts of making indecent images of children; possessing prohibited images of children; and possessing extreme pornographic images portraying acts of intercourse with animals, namely dogs and horses,” according to a Sussex Police statement.
Strangely, he does not appear to have faced any charges relating to animal cruelty or neglect, despite police officers finding his vicarage full of dead and dying animals including cats, dogs, and chickens.
“The search of his address was one of the most revolting tasks our officers will ever have to endure,” commented investigating officer Detective Sergeant David Rose. “As well as malnourished living animals, there was also a dead rotting kitten and a dead rotting rat on the floor, in addition to used needles and other drug paraphernalia lying around. It was a deeply unpleasant scene to search.”
In lurid conversations with other child predators, Renshaw had bragged: “I’m a sadistic bastard. Through and fucking through.”
He also referenced his desire to “sacrifice babies to Satan” in these conversations, and urged another paedophile to sacrifice his own three-year-old to the Devil.
The 22,504 abuse images Renshaw had in his possession are said to have been especially unpleasant, with Detective Sergeant Rose saying it was “a particularly harrowing experience for the officer who had to sift through and grade each image, something that will stay with him for the rest of his life.”
The vicar even attempted to blame his own sons for his online activity, arguing they had access to his computers — without success, as a jury took less than half an hour to convict him on all charges.
Formerly of Christ Church Worthing, which boasts on its website that it “welcome[s] all nationalities, those of any age and sexual preference”, Renshaw was bizarrely added to the Church of England’s National Clergy Register of trustworthy clerics after he had been charged.
A spokeswoman for the Diocese of Chichester admitted that it is “clear” his name should not have been added and claimed that the matter has been “[referred] to the National Safeguarding Team as a matter of urgency [so] they can investigate how this happened.”
Having survived an attempted overdose after his conviction, the vicar has been remanded in custody ahead of his sentencing, with Judge Christine Henson KC telling him she was “considering an immediate custodial term of some length.”
What the British judiciary considers a lengthy prison sentence seldom lines up with what the British public considers a lengthy prison sentence, however, and high-profile paedophiles like Renshaw are frequently spared any time behind bars at all.
Former Labour Party councillor Roger Spackman, for example, was let off with a suspended sentence despite downloading 290,672 indecent images of children, including graphic imagery of children being raped, in 2020.
The same year, a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Labour with a history of assault convictions, Eric Joyce, also got off with a suspended sentence despite being found in possession of videos of the most extreme category of child pornography.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.