THE Diocese of Arundel and Brighton has stressed it is "fully committed to supporting all victims of abuse" in response to allegations made against a former Hindhead priest.

An inquest into the death of Simon Withrington, 38, who was found dead in his Aldershot home on November 17, heard that he had been the victim of sexual abuse when he was a nine year-old altar boy at St Anselm's Catholic Church in Beacon Hill.

Mr Withrington's father told the coroner Andrew Bradley at the inquest in Alton on February 1 that the perpetrator was Father John Metcalf.

Father Metcalf, who died in 2002, was priest at St Anselm's in the parish of Haslemere, Hindhead and Chiddingfold from 1983 to 1985.

For full story, see this week's Haslemere Herald.