A former priest who was jailed for life for raping a six-year-old boy in the vestry of his Sussex church has died at the age of 80.
The prisons and probation ombudsman is investigating the death of Ifor Whittaker, formerly known as Colin Pritchard, who was serving his sentence at Littlehey Prison, near Huntingdon, in Cambridgeshire.
Whittaker died on Monday 31 March while at the category C prison having admitted raping a child in the vestry of St John the Baptist Church, in Sedlescombe, near Hastings, in the late 1990s.
At his sentencing at Hove Crown Court last year, Beverly Cripps, prosecuting, said that it was the church where he had baptised the boy.
When he passed sentence, Judge Gary Lucie told Whittaker, “you are a predatory paedophile and have been for many years,” adding that the offence had been “an egregious breach of trust”.
Whittaker, a former Church of England priest, had been jailed twice before for similar offences.
He was sentenced to 16 years in 2018 for sexually abusing a boy from 1987 to 1991 and he was jailed for five years in 2008 for offences against two children in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, from 1979 to 1983.
The ombudsman investigates the deaths of prisoners in England and Wales as well as the deaths that occur within 14 days of a prisoner being released unless murder is suspected.
A man who was abused by Whittaker more than 40 years ago, Phil Johnson, 59, from Eastbourne, said: “He died more than three weeks ago but I only found at the weekend through a journalist from the Daily Mail.
“The church had been informed but they didn’t reach out to any of the victims as far as I’m aware.
“It’s shoddy of the church to leave it for victims to find out through a journalist from the Daily Mail. It just shows a total lack of care and consideration from the church again.”
He said that this was compounded by the death coming to light over Easter.
Mr Johnson, who now runs support groups for adult survivors of child sexual abuse, has waived his right to life-long anonymity.
He said: “I certainly won’t grieve for him. But I’m not going to celebrate it either. He eventually got what he deserved.”
Whittaker died just over four months after he was given a life sentence. Mr Johnson said: “It’s the end of a chapter, but it just wasn’t a very happy chapter.”
Mr Johnson said that the abuse by Pritchard, aka Whittaker, and fellow priest Roy Cotton, went on throughout much of his childhood and had dominated his life for the past 30 years.
He said: “Colin Pritchard was an evil, nasty, predatory, violent offender – and he was effectively protected and allowed to continue doing these things by the system that’s supposed to protect people and by an organisation that’s supposed to be loving and caring.”
Mr Johnson was the first person to report Pritchard to the police about 30 years ago but the investigation did not result in a conviction.
The perverted priest was interviewed by police in the final month of his life after another victim came forward.
Mr Johnson said that there had been police investigations, court cases, reviews and a public inquiry but a number of victims had been left without justice.
Pritchard is believed to have been one of 18 members of the clergy in the Diocese of Chichester – the Sussex division of the Church of England – to have been convicted of child sex offences.
After Pritchard was jailed as Ifor Whittaker last November, Mr Johnson said: “I would encourage other victims and survivors to come forward and speak about their abuse because it’s only by doing that that we can prevent these things happening in the future.”
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Adrian Usher said: “The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman is carrying out an independent investigation into the death of Ifor Whittaker, who died on (Monday) 31 March 2025 while a prisoner at HMP Littlehey.
“Our investigation is under way and we will publish an anonymised version of our final report on our website once the inquest into Mr Whittaker’s death has concluded.”
