A RETIRED vicar who committed a "wicked" crime by indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl while his wife was pregnant has been spared jail.

Charlbury grandfather Grahame Humphries abused his position within the Anglican Church by kissing and touching the teenager, whose family had been looking after him while his wife was away, Kingston Crown Court heard yesterday.

Humphries, now 71-years-old, was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, after admitting to indecent assault against the girl more than four decades ago.

Judge Paul Dodgson told the pensioner, who entered the dock on crutches, that he had blighted his victim's life while working in another parish.

He said: "Forty-five years ago when you were a young curate aged 27 you did something very wicked.

"You took advantage of your position of trust to a girl then aged 14."

The Lees Heights resident admitted kissing the girl and touching her breasts over her clothes on a number of occasions between September 1971 and September 1972.

Another such incident, which Humphries said he could not recall but did not challenge, saw him entering the girl's bedroom when she was home alone and being "insistent" on her taking her clothes off, prosecutor Max Hardy said.

The victim, who attended the sentencing on Wednesday with family and friends, refused but became upset and later told her mother what had been happening, he added.

Mr Hardy said the case came to court after the victim decided to go to police following "extensive publicity" around the Jimmy Savile scandal.

Charlene Sumnall, in mitigation for Humphries, said the victim "found the strength of character to make the allegation" after seeing other people being taken seriously in relation to the Savile investigation.

Humphries, who has worked in parishes across England, was ordered to pay £500 in costs, given a 24-month supervision order and told to sign the sex offenders register for the next five years.