A NEW charge of indecent assault was put to a 61-year-old vicar when he re-appeared before Wirral Magistrates at Birkenhead on Monday.

The Reverend David Henry McIntosh was already facing 14 other matters of indecent assault involving young boys and one of taking an indecent photograph.

The offences are alleged to have occurred at locations in Swindon, Llandudno and Bangor on Dee.

The Rev McIntosh had been staying at an address in Fenwick Lane, Halton Lodge, Runcorn, but has now been moved to a secret venue which was not revealed in open court.

Committal proceedings were adjourned until April 7 and he was bailed with conditions which included providing two sureties totalling £2,000 and no communication with witnesses and a co-accused Graham Charles Webb, 41, of Rakersfield Road, New Brighton, who had been head of care at a West Kirby Residential School appeared with him in the dock. He is charged with 19 indecent assault allegations at West Kirby, Swindon, Minehead, Malvern and Cheltenham, four matters of gross indecency at West Kirby and two other offences brought under the Sexual Offences Act.

Webb was remanded in custody to the new date. He did not apply for bail which was refused by a judge on an earlier occasion.

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