PREACHER Edwin Cottingham, the 67-year-old elder of Caterham Christian Fellowship, was jailed for six-and-a-half years at Truro (Cornwall) Crown Court on Monday for sexually abusing two young girls and an unrelated married woman.

Cottingham, a former landscape gardener of Waterhouse Cottage, Ivy Mill Lane, Goldstone, had denied six allegations of unlawful sexual touching on the children and one of indecent assault on a woman in her 30's during his trial in November.

In sentencing him Judge Philip Wassall said that an aggravating feature of Cottingham's evidence was that he had taken every opportunity to rubbish the characters of the girls' family. The mother, he pointed out, had twice been called back to answer matters "which, in my view, you had just thought about."

She had spoken of his having betrayed the family's trust to enable him to commit the offences.

Cottingham, who had spent two months in jail awaiting sentence, showed little reaction, other than to raise a hand to his wife, before going down to the cells.

His counsel, Timothy Hills, commented that it was ironic that a man who had in the past adminstered to prisoners in both a high security jail and an ordinary one in New Zealand now found himself in prison. During two months in Exeter jail he had become a trusted prisoner to the extent that his cell door was open at all times to enable other prisoners to seek his advice, guidance and encouragement. "He has become their agony uncle," he declared.

Stressing that Cottin­ham was of previous hitherto positive good character, Mr Hills produced a raft of character references and called two witnesses.

'No concerns'

Lionel Clargo, a minister of religion in Caterham who had attended every day of the trial, said that he had not heard one word which altered his opinion of Cottingham. They were not of the same church but had worked together on community youth activities and he had never had any concerns nor had anyone expressed any concern about his behaviour.

Glenton Brown, a Cornwall County Coun­cillor and father of two girls, said he had known Cottingham for more than 40 years and had had no reservations about him when he and his wife stayed at the farm and the families holidayed together.

Judge Wassall suggested the girls' family would have said exactly the same about Cottingham before the mother saw him assaulting the girls while on a Good Friday walk on the North Cornwall coastal path.

Over a period of years Cottingham had assaulted the girls. As far as the woman was concerned, he had in 1998 taken her home one evening and assaulted her in the process of saying good night. She had not told anyone until, years later, she heard about other allegations and then she broke down and it all came out.

"You appear to have little thought for the consequences of your behaviour for the girls," said Judge Wassall. "You groomed them and also the family over a long period of time and you abused them countless number of times."

Cottingham has been banned indefinitely from having unsupervised contact with anyone under 16, being involved in voluntary activities involving children or working with them. He must also sign the Sex Offenders' Register for the rest of his life.