A RETIRED teacher and Baptist minister has been jailed for two years for molesting five girls in a catalogue of abuse dating back almost 50 years.

Geoffrey Breed’s lawyer pleaded for a suspended sentence to be imposed but a judge said he must go “directly to jail”.

Judge Anthony Balston said Breed, who continues to protest his innocence, had committed systematic and long-term abuse of his victims.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that Breed had told his QC Simon Farrell that he considered being sent to prison a death sentence.

Breed of Cleave Road, Gillingham, was convicted in September of 18 charges of indecent assault.

The 80-year-old married father-of-three had originally denied 21 charges but was acquitted of three by direction of the judge.

The abuse stretched between December 1956 and May 2000. Philip St John-Stevens, prosecuting, said the girls had been systematically abused over almost five decades.

The jury heard about Breed’s obsessive interest in watching his victims use the lavatory and “helping” them.

The first complainant, now in her 50's, said she had first been fondled by him when she was as young as six.

Another victim, now aged 24, said Breed sat her on his lap when she visited his home from the age of about seven. He would touch her and she would be aware that he was sexually aroused.

A third girl, now 22, told police how on visits to his house he would never let her lock the door when she went to the toilet. He would go in after her and lock the door.

She claimed he would encourage her to sit on his lap and touch her. He would position her so that she could feel he was aroused.

A fourth girl, also now 22, said Breed seemed to be obsessed with the lavatory and would often ask her if she wanted to go.

Breed was arrested in June 2002. He was due to stand trial in February, but then a fifth girl came forward to claim that he had also abused her.

The former export manager, who was given the freedom of the City of London in 1953, denied that any of the assaults happened.

He was involved the Baptist church in Gillingham and was a schoolteacher from 1969-1980 “mostly in Strood”, reaching the position of deputy head. He was ordained a minister and wrote books on Baptist history.

Breed appeared shocked as the jury of eight men and four women delivered unanimous verdicts after deliberating for almost nine hours over two days.

Mr Farrell said Breed, who was accompanied in court by his wife Beryl, was in poor health, suffering from heart and degenerative back problems. It was in a sense to his credit, he said, that he continued to claim he was innocent. The QC said the offences were not the most serious of their kind.

“It is rather curious to see Geoffrey Breed in court at all,” he said. “He is 81 in about two weeks. He is someone who has led a distinguished public life and has given very distinguished service throughout that life.”

He was a commissioned officer in the Second World War and fought for his country in the Far East. He was made a Freeman of the City of London because of his service to trade and marketing.

Mr Farrell said Breed also led a distinguished religious life. He took great care of his children and gave them substantial sums of money.

A prison sentence filled him with some forboding. “He describes it as a death sentence,” said Mr Farrell. “He is not in the best of health. This is the sort of case where you can properly suspend any sentence of imprisonment which must inevitably follow.

“One asks rhetorically: What great purpose would be served in sending this man to prison? Of course, he must be punished. But his life is in ruins.”

Mr Farrell said Breed and his wife, who wept on hearing the sentence, had been isolated from the rest of their family for two and a half years and it would continue until he died.

He had also been unable to travel to the United States to preach or at the Baptist church in this country.

“His wife has been through hell so far as these proceedings are concerned,” he said. “If he is sent to prison today that hell will undoubtedly get worse.

“Given that he is such an old man he is someone who might not come out of prison alive. That is a distinct possibility for a man of his age.”

Judge Balston told Breed that he noted that he had served with distinction in the Services during the War and had had an industrious life since.

“But the jury that tried you found you guilty of persistent and long-term abuse. There are no exceptional circumstances in my view which could justify me in suspending any sentence of imprisonment and for these offences you must go directly to jail.”

Breed was also banned from working with children for five years and will remain on the sex offenders’ register for life.