A TEARFUL man told police how as a young churchgoer he was regularly abused by his parish vicar, a court heard.

But the now middle-aged man told police that as a naïve youngster he believed he was being “comforted” by the “touchy-feely” churchman, and thought, “it was his job as a man of the cloth.”

The video-recorded police interview was played to the jury at Durham Crown Court on the second day of the trial of Granville Gibson, who at the time of the alleged incidents was minister at St Clare’s in Newton Aycliffe.

He went on to earn the title The Venerable Granville Gibson when he became Archdeacon of Auckland, one of the highest posts in the Durham diocese.

The 80-year-old now retired cleric, from Darlington, is facing a total of nine charges of historical abuse, said to have been committed against two male teenagers and one young churchman in his mid-20s, dating from the late 1970s and early eighties.

He denies eight counts of indecent assault and one further serious sexual offence.

The jury heard that as a youngster one of the victims was in a family of churchgoers who regularly attended St Clare’s.

Asked during the interview, conducted in April 2014, what happened to him, he said: “The vicar, Granville Gibson, would give you a cuddle, and that, and I thought that was just what he did.

“He cuddled me and pressed himself against me.

“I just thought it was his job as a man of the cloth, to comfort you.

“It went on for quite a few years and I didn’t think anything was really wrong.

“He would cuddle me, press himself against me and put his hand down there,” as he pointed to the area of his crotch.

But he then added: “I don’t know how he ended up with me alone at the church and in his car.”

The witness said Mr Gibson would often take him for a ride in his car, including to an annual church service in Middlesbrough.

He described Gibson as: “So touchy-feely, all the time.

“But, if anyone came in, he would sit back.”

Asked when the abuse ended, he said it was only when Mr Gibson left St Clare’s to move to another parish.

The complainant said he went on to go into care, and take overdoses, but, asked how he faced up to his experiences at the hands of the defendant, he said: “I just wanted to blacken it out of my head.”

The witness will undergo cross-examination by defence counsel Andrew Stubbs, tomorrow (Wednesday July 26).

Proceeding.