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| Vicar who went on the run after stealing church funds jailed | Vicar who went on the run after stealing church funds jailed |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A vicar who went on the run to Germany just before he was convicted of stealing thousands of pounds has been jailed for two years and eight months. | A vicar who went on the run to Germany just before he was convicted of stealing thousands of pounds has been jailed for two years and eight months. |
| Simon Reynolds, 50, took more than £16,500 handed over to All Saints church in Darton, Barnsley, for weddings, funerals and churchyard memorials. | |
| He was jailed at Sheffield crown court by judge Julian Goose QC, who heard that Reynolds fled to Dusseldorf as the jury deliberated last week. | He was jailed at Sheffield crown court by judge Julian Goose QC, who heard that Reynolds fled to Dusseldorf as the jury deliberated last week. |
| He handed himself in to South Yorkshire police on Monday in an arranged appointment. | He handed himself in to South Yorkshire police on Monday in an arranged appointment. |
| Senior clergy, including the Right Rev Tony Robinson, bishop of Wakefield, and the Ven Peter Townley, archdeacon of Pontefract, had appealed for Reynolds, of Farnham, Surrey, to hand himself in. | Senior clergy, including the Right Rev Tony Robinson, bishop of Wakefield, and the Ven Peter Townley, archdeacon of Pontefract, had appealed for Reynolds, of Farnham, Surrey, to hand himself in. |
| Reynolds’s trial heard he had not paid any fees for weddings or funerals to the Wakefield diocesan board of finance for a number of years, despite conducting a number of services during this time. | Reynolds’s trial heard he had not paid any fees for weddings or funerals to the Wakefield diocesan board of finance for a number of years, despite conducting a number of services during this time. |
| Monuments for 23 burials and 50 cremation plaques or inscriptions were found in the church grounds and graveyard but no records of the burials or cremations had been made. | Monuments for 23 burials and 50 cremation plaques or inscriptions were found in the church grounds and graveyard but no records of the burials or cremations had been made. |
| Two widows who handed over cash to Reynolds in relation to headstones after their husbands died said he deserved a longer sentence. | |
| Iris Fleetwood, whose husband Jeff died in 2010, said: “To me personally, he nearly destroyed me, that man. I did warn the church at the time, I told him personally and his boss that he was no man of God and he was a disgrace to Darton church. | |
| “He took me to the very edge, Simon, and from that day I’ve waited for this day and, at last, it’s come. I knew one day he would be found out for exactly what he is. He was never, ever a man of God.” | |
| Gail Zoldan, whose husband Martin died in 2011, said: “I’m glad that justice has been done but I do think he should have got longer than he has – him being in the position that he was, a priest. | |
| “If it had been somebody else, I wouldn’t have been as bothered. But I think being a priest, and having all your trust in him, the sentence just isn’t long enough. | |
| “When you’ve lost somebody so close to you, that’s been a big part of your life since you were 14 years of age, and then you try to make a nice grave for him and [Reynolds] doesn’t even keep the cemetery properly done – you’ve to fight weeds and everything to get to a grave. And then for him to steal money that was there for that reason, it just causes you a lot of grief, so much upset.” | |
| Both women, who live in Darton, watched from the public gallery as Reynolds was jailed. |