A retired Church of England priest has been charged with sex attacks on 18 girls and boys dating back 50 years.
Canon Gordon Rideout, 73, is accused of committing 38 offences over an 11-year period between 1962 and 1973.
The charges follow a nine-month inquiry by Sussex Police detectives into allegations of child sex abuse in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Rideout, of Filching Close, Wannock, Polegate, East Sussex, will appear on bail at Mid Sussex Magistrates' Court on July 16.
A total of 36 of the 38 alleged offences are of indecent assault on girls and boys in their early teens, a Sussex Police statement said today.
Of those, 31 are alleged to have been committed at a property in Crawley, West Sussex, and one in Barkingside, Essex, between 1962 and 1968.
A further four indecent assaults are alleged to have taken place in Middle Wallop, Hampshire, between 1971 and 1973.
The other two allegations are of attempted unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl in Crawley between 1962 and 1966.
Rideout was arrested on March 6 and freed on police bail pending further inquiries before being charged yesterday following more interviews.
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