Sheffield vicar branded woman with cross, court told

Hilary Alflatt, formerly known as Malcolm Alflatt, is on trial at Hull Crown Court

A vicar branded a woman with a cross-shaped mark and beat her with a cane over nearly a decade of abuse, a trial has heard.

Hilary Alflatt is said to have treated his accuser like "a slave" between 1983 and 1992 when he served in Sheffield.

Giving evidence at Hull Crown Court, she said much of the abuse took place at Mr Alflatt's vicarage.

The retired 87-year-old, previously known as Malcolm Alflatt, is accused of seven offences.

In her testimony the woman, who cannot be named, told the court the abuse began in the early 1980s after Mr Alflatt made her make "life vows" of poverty, obedience and chastity.

She said she was told that to disobey them was "to disobey God".

The woman said she would be regularly "summonsed" to the vicarage and beaten with a bamboo cane.

In a police interview played to jurors she said: "He would say I had been disobedient, he never said why, and I would have to lie on the bed and he would give me a good wallop."

On one occasion in the early 1990s, she was made to lie naked on the bed and given at least "50 strokes" with the cane, the court heard.

"He ordered me to sing the whole time and if I stopped singing he would beat me even more," the witness said.

'Life of hell'

At one stage, the woman told police, she spent five days locked in a room at the vicarage, naked except for a collar around her neck.

On another occasion she said the defendant had described her as "his slave" and used a heated needle to make two marks in the shape of a cross on her arm.

"The agony was indescribable. I've never experienced such pain. I was absolutely shaking," she said.

Following this, the woman said, the defendant picked up a pair of pliers and ordered her to open her mouth.

As he did so he told her "he was deciding whether to pull out two of my teeth because I was his slave and he could do whatever he wanted to do", she said.

She said she had endured "a life of hell for 10 years" before finally speaking out. Jurors heard she had undergone a "ritual of release" to free her of her vows.

Asked why she did not report the abuse sooner, she said: "I should have gone to the police. I should have tried to get help, but I just didn't know how. I didn't know how to get away from him or get released from these vows.

The witness, told jurors: "You never questioned a priest because they were the representative of Christ on Earth.

"I did not have a choice. If I said no to him I would have taken a beating."

Cross-examining the witness, defence barrister Kathryn Pitters claimed Mr Alflatt and the woman had been having an affair.

She said: "And part of that sexual relationship you had involved submission and dominance, it was effectively a sado-masochistic relationship. Do you agree?"

The witness replied: "No he's telling lies."

Mr Alflatt, of Harewood Lane, Northallerton, faces five counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of false imprisonment.

He has been ruled unfit to plead, so jurors will not return verdicts on the case but must decide whether he committed the offences alleged.

The trial continues.