Police: Vicar never showed any remorse at all

1:44pm Thursday 20th March 2008

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By Charlotte Bradshaw »

THROUGHOUT police questioning the perverted vicar never showed an "ounce of remorse", officers investigating the case said.

The allegations first came to light after members of his own family became concerned about what they found on his computer.

The shamed vicar later admitted having sick sexual fantasies about 13-year-old girls.

Astonishingly, police said that he even tried to justify viewing horrific child porn videos saying to officers "well it's not real children anyway."

Detective Constable Mike McKortel, of South Ribble CID, said: "Sadly, he has never shown any remorse for what he has done and just shown self pity."

Since his conviction, Battersby has signed the sex offenders register at Birkenhead Police Station, near where he is now living.

"When he was in Liverpool he said to officers well it's not real children anyway'. He's in denial by thinking it's filmed on some kind of Hollywood set," said DC McKortel.

Police said they had been informed that Battersby had been planning to move back to Lancashire. DC McKortel added: "The most serious image we found was a picture of a child of about 12.

"She was tied up and being raped by an adult. He had downloaded the images from the internet and used filesharing websites.

"Sadly it's a common thing. The internet allows people who are interested in these subjects to find the dark side of the internet. What he has done is appalling really."

The detective said the vicar fled when he knew police were on to him. He added: "His family contacted the Bishop of Blackburn to inform him of what they found who in turn contacted the police.

"Police acted on this information.

"He knew we were looking for him before we seized the computer. There was a 24-hour gap between the computer being seized and his arrest after he fled to Liverpool.

"He came back the following day and was arrested.

"But by this time he had destroyed evidence and deleted things from his computer which he had copied onto a memory stick. The images were recovered in forensic examination. He admitted he was having sexual fantasies about 13-year-old girls."

Police investigations were also carried out to establish whether Battersby had ever committed further offences.

"There was a line of inquiry undertaken as part of the investigation but there was nothing to suggest he had tried to progress any of his fantasies in any shape or form," the detective said.