A shocked community was today coming to terms with its second church sex scandal in six months. Residents in the Bensham area of Gateshead spoke of their shock after a second clergyman was jailed for sex attacks on young boys. Shamed preacher Neville Husband was jailed for eight years on Friday for a series of sick attacks on young prison inmates. The married United Reformed Church minister was found guilty of molesting teenage boys while he was a warder in charge of kitchens at a North East detention centre. Husband, who is already suspended from his former church in Bensham, Gateshead, is the second clergyman in the area to be found guilty of indecently assaulting young boys. Last October trusted vicar George Glover, of St Chad's, was jailed for 18 months after he was convicted of touching up a 10-year-old schoolboy. Today residents living near the two churches said the pair had brought shame to the area. Bensham councillor Frank Donovan, 75, said: "It's obviously awful that this kind of thing has happened twice in the same area. "I'm relieved justice is done. You have to feel sorry for the victims. This kind of thing destroys lives. "It's difficult because I'm religious myself and if you can't trust people in that position, who can you trust? "Sadly, this kind of thing happens in churches just as it happens in every part of society, and I think sometimes people don't realise the extent of it. "But we have to remember that the majority of churchmen carry out their jobs and never do anything wrong." Husband was found guilty of indecently assaulting five inmates at a former detention in Medomsley, Co Durham, between 1975 and 1985. A jury at Newcastle Crown Court also convicted him of another serious sex offence against one of the vulnerable victims at the Co Durham borstal. The jury cleared him of attacks on a sixth youth. The 65-year-old clergyman, from Snows Green Road, Shotley Bridge, showed no trace of emotion as the jury returned their verdict. Husband, who spent 27 years in the prison service before retiring to train for the church, had branded his victims liars. Local resident Dave Jackson, 42, said: "People couldn't believe this had happened once but for it to happen again is unbelievable. It's scandalous. You expect people in that sort of position to be trustworthy." A young mum who lives near the churches said: "The churches are only a hundred yard apart. It's shocking that people in that position are doing this sort of thing." | 
