The police have renewed their plea for victims of paedophile vicar Graham Gregory to come forward.

As the Manx Independent reported yesterday, following two separate trials at a Court of General Gaol Delivery, the 82-year-old was found guilty and convicted of three historic indecent assaults against three separate victims.

The offences were committed between 1975 and 1990 while Graham Gregory was the vicar at St Ninian’s Church, Douglas.

He was sentenced to four years andfour months custody and placed on the Sexual Offences register for an indefinite period of time.

Detective Constable Alison Thompson said: ’Mr Gregory abused his trusted position and sexually assaulted the victims who were young girls aged between eight years and 13 years old.

’The victims have shown immense courage by reporting these offences to the police and throughout the investigation and court process and I would like to personally thank them for that.

’I would also like to thank the Victim Support service and the prosecution team for the support shown to the victims and the witnesses throughout the investigation and subsequent General Gaol trials.

Officers from the [police’s] public protection unit have also worked closely with the Diocese of Sodor and Man who assisted the police with this investigation throughout.’

She added: ’Being the victim of any form of sexual offence is extremely traumatic and distressing and it takes strength and courage to report such matters.

’Specialist detectives from the public protection team at police headquarters are available to speak with anyone who wishes to report any sexual abuse and those officers will be able to offer specialist support, guidance and advice and support those victims throughout any holice investigation.’

Gregory’s sexual abuse of young girls spanned nearly four decades.

As he jailed him, Deemster Kainth described him as a ’manipulative’ person who had ’deliberately set out to get his sexual kicks from young children’.

Gregory showed no emotion as he was sent down.

Two of the victims were under 13 when they were attacked by the vicar while doing ’bob a job’ for charity at his home in the 1970s.

The third victim was just eight when he struck while she was singing in the kitchen of her own home in the early 1990s.

The Deemster paid tribute to those victims who had to relive their ordeal in court, only for the defendant to change his plea to guilty. He said without them giving their accounts in court, ’he would have got away with it’.

Gregory was found guilty of a third offence of indecent assault at a second trial.

Statements from two of his victims were read out in court.

One said that as a child she should have felt safe with a man of the church who held a position of trust.

’Instead, he preyed on us and used his position as a veil to hide his dark side and we paid the price,’ she said.

A second victim said she still bears the scars from when she had tried to harm herself.

As an adult she had tried to put events behind her.

Believing her attacker was dead, it had come as a massive shock to discover police were looking for other victims.

She said attending court had been an extremely upsetting and traumatic experience.

The Diocese of Sodor and Man said it ’apologised unreservedly’ to those survivors of his abuse, saying there were ’no excuses whatsoever’ for what took place and there had been a ’grievous breach of trust, which has lifelong effects’.

In a statement, it said it is committed to making the church a safer place for all and has clear procedures in place.

Appealing for other potential victims to come forward, it added: ’We continue to urge anyone has been affected by this news to please contact the Public Protection Unit at police headquarters who can be contacted on 631499.’

The court heard that four girls, including two sisters, had attended Gregory’s home to do a ’bob a job’ for charity.

The vicar ignored the sisters who were wearing trousers but separated the other girls in different rooms where he molested them.

Deemster Kainth said one had been ’frozen with fear’. ’She could not move, she could not speak. She was a child and children need protecting,’ he said.

He said that Gregory’s eight year-old victim was assaulted while singing in the kitchen at her home.

Her mother was in the room but the vicar, out of his own ’sexually perverted gratification’, had positioned himself in such a way that she could not see what he was doing.

His young victim suffered emotional and physical trauma, which was only added to when Gregory made her come along with her family to watch the bats in Braddan church where he tried to apologise.

Gregory’s defence advocate Stephen Wood accepted his client had in his prime represented an ’on-going danger to children’ - but that danger had been tempered by his advancing years.

The Deemster in his sentencing said he was taking into account the health of the defendant who suffered a stroke in December last year.

His wife was also very poorly.

But he said there was a clear course of conduct involving sexual desire towards such young girls and a substantial breach of trust.

He jailed him for three years for one of the offences and 16 months each concurrently for the other two, making a total of four years and four months.

Gregory, of Brockfield Park Drive, Huntington, York, was also placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

During his career, the vicar also held positions in Hastings, Chichester and York.

In 2015, he was jailed for three years at Kingston Crown Court for abusing a child between 1969 and 1971 when she lived in Wandsworth and went to the church where Gregory was curate.