A paedophile vicar who talked about sacrificing babies to Satan and was caught with more than 20,000 indecent images of children has been jailed. Rev David Renshaw, 63, was found with a stash of illegal pictures and videos on his home computer, where he also kept dead and starving animals.
Some of his extreme pornography included clips showing sex with dogs and horses.
Police first spotted Renshaw in June 2019 when an indecent image was found on a paedophile file sharing website in New Zealand that was linked back to the vicar, who lived in Worthing, West Sussex. The account was attributed to Renshaw's email and IP address, so it was flagged to the National Crime Agency who alerted Sussex Police.
Poloice seized a string of devices at his home in August 2020 and a total of 22,504 illegal images were uncovered. The RSPCA also found dogs, cats and chickens that were left in a severely malnourished state, police said.
As well as starving living animals, there was also a dead rotting kitten and rat found on the floor, along with used needles and other drug equipment lying around his home. In chat logs found on his devices, Renshaw referenced "sacrificing babies to the devil" and asked another user to sacrifice his son to Satan.
Renshaw was vicar of Holy Trinity and Christ Church in the seaside town of Worthing in 2019 when he first came to the attention of the authorities. He denied all the charges, but a jury found him guilty of eight counts following a trial in February.
These charges were made up of three counts of possessing indecent images of children, three counts of making indecent images of children and having prohibited photos of children. He was also convicted of having extreme porn showing sexual intercourse with animals - in this case dogs and horses.
At Hove Crown Court on Thursday, Renshaw was jailed for four years and ordered to pay £4,200 in fines. The judge added that the defendant posed a high risk to children so imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and ordered the destruction of all the indecent images and videos.
A spokesman for Sussex Police said: "Renshaw remains a high risk to children and demonstrated a profound breach of trust to parishioners and the wider church community."
Detective Sergeant David Rose, investigating officer for the force, said after the sentencing hearing, that the officer who examined the extreme material will be scarred by the harrowing content. He added: “Throughout this investigation, Renshaw sought to blame anyone but himself.
“He failed to accept or take any responsibility for his actions, which I am certain the local parish he represented would be appalled by. Through painstaking and careful enquiries, we were able to show that the child abuse images were on his computer, saved under his username and found on a hard drive on his desk.
“The sheer number of images indicate that they were accumulated over a protracted period of time. The search of his address was one of the most revolting tasks our officers will ever have to endure.
“As well as malnourished living animals, there was also a dead rotting kitten and a dead rotting rat on the floor, in addition to used needles and other drug paraphernalia lying around. It was a deeply unpleasant scene to search. It was also a particularly harrowing experience for the officer who had to sift through and grade each image, something that will stay with him for the rest of his life.
“All necessary safeguarding enquiries were carried out and there was no risk to any identifiable children in the case.”
