THE jury in a trial of a vicar accused of sexually abusing a boy when he was a Bradford head teacher is expected to retire to consider its verdict today.

David Fletcher, 63, denies seven allegations of indecent assault, relating to a boy aged between nine and 15, and a charge of sexually assaulting the same complainant once when he was an adult.

Now a vicar in the Driffield area of East Yorkshire, Fletcher was deputy head at St Oswald’s Church of England Primary School in Little Horton and headmaster at St Barnabas School in Heaton before he was ordained in 2001.

Fletcher’s trial at Bradford Crown Court has heard that he is respected and admired by parishioners at the 12 churches in his ministry.

The court also heard that Fletcher had been sickened by the allegations.

The complainant, now a married man, told police he looked on Fletcher as a father figure when he was growing up because his own father was not around.