Vicar gets 10-year ban for affair

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/west_midlands/7773747.stm

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A married vicar who had an affair with a woman who sought help for her problems has been barred from office for 10 years.

The Reverend Dr Patrick Okechi, from the Church of the Good Shepherd with St John, West Bromwich, appeared before a church disciplinary tribunal.

He had behaved in a manner "unbecoming or inappropriate to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders," it found.

Dr Okechi said he only had a friendship with the woman, known as Mrs A.

The judgement, which was given by tribunal chairman Judge Simon Grenfall, said Mrs A was a parishioner who had been separated from her husband for a number of years.

She attended the West Midlands church for the first time in December 2003.

Expressions of love

The judgement said she had "personal problems with a history of unstable behaviour" and sought Dr Okechi to talk to.

She began attending a regular Wednesday service conducted by the father-of-three.

The tribunal chairman, sitting at Leeds Crown Court, said: "Occasionally he would come to her house for coffee or she would go to the vicarage.

"One Friday, as he left her house, he had put his arm around her and said he thought he loved her.

"She spoke of a feeling of shock but confessed to it being a good feeling, thinking that somebody actually loved her."

The following Wednesday Mrs A went to the vicarage and, as she sat on the settee, Dr Okechi put his arm around her and started to kiss her, the judgement said.

"She had pointed out she was 13 years older but he had said that did not matter," the judge said.

'Unnecessary suffering'

The tribunal heard the couple then began a sexual relationship which lasted nearly two years, until Dr Okechi ended it in February 2006.

The judgement said that Dr Ockechi claimed there had only been a "simple friendship" but Mrs A had become obsessed with him and harassed him until "he ceased to have anything to do with her".

After the tribunal, the Bishop of Lichfield said he was "extremely disappointed" by Dr Okechi's conduct.

The Rt Rev Jonathan Gledhill added that by denying the allegation the vicar had "caused unnecessary suffering to a parish which has gone through a very difficult time over the last couple of years".

Dr Okechi was suspended in 2006 after the bishop received the complaint.

A new permanent minister will now be sought for the West Bromwich church, the bishop said.