Priest jailed for abusing boys for over 20 years

London: A priest who abused boys for more than two decades at a Catholic school in Manchester was jailed for six years on Wednesday.

William Green, 67, admitted 27 counts of sexual abuse on boys aged between 9 and 16 dating back to the 1960s, police said.

Most of the offences were committed at St. Bede's College, in Alexandra Park in south Manchester, where he repeatedly abused pupils while working as a teacher there from 1973 to 1991, the court heard.

He also admitted assaulting a boy at St. Margaret Mary's Primary School in New Moston where he worked as a PE teacher in the 1960s.

Detectives said in each case he would make excuses to get the boys on their own either in his room or in the church dormitory where he indecently assaulted them.

Green pleaded guilty to the charges at an earlier hearing at Manchester Crown Court.

Sentencing him, judge Justice Goldstone said the effect of the abuse had lasted years and in some cases still remained, the Press Association reported.