Retired vicar pal of Diana lover Dodi Fayed appears in court accused of molesting children over two decades
He's facing more than 20 charges involving a number of victims
A FORMER vicar and friend of Princess Diana's ex-boyfriend has appeared before a judge accused of sexually abusing children over the course of two decades.
Former churchman Guy Bennett faced new charges after two further women told police he had indecently assaulted them.
He was already facing more than 20 similar charges involving other victims.
The white-haired 83-year-old, who sparked outcry when the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said he could not be barred from wearing a dog collar, entered no plea to a new total of 24 charges of indecent assault and one count of outraging public decency.
A close friend of Princess Diana's former partner's father, Harrod's boss Mohamed Al Fayed, Bennett was formerly chaplain at a Butlins holiday camp and for the stars of Theatreland in London when he gave spiritual guidance to performers at the Palladium Theatre in London.
Eloise Marshall, prosecuting at Guildford Crown Court on Friday, said Bennett now faced two further charges of indecent assault - with a total of 12 alleged victims - since he last appeared before a court on remand, accused of abusing children in London and in the affluent village of Oxted, Surrey, where he had worked as a vicar since 1972.
Oxford-educated Bennett, now from Lewes Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex, had taught religious education part-time at a village school and had worked at three churches there, living in a vicarage.
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Judge Jonathan Black was told Bennett was accused of carrying out sex attacks on 11 victims aged under 16 and one adult woman between 1977 and 1992.
Bennett, who carried out a memorial service for Al Fayed's son, Dodi, who was killed in a car crash with Princess Diana in 1997, appeared not to be wearing his dog collar when he appeared before the court.
He was represented by Paul Walker who explained that medical reports had to be made before his client, who was wearing a black scarf around his neck, a blue tie and dark jacket and was carrying a walking stick, entered pleas to his charges.
The hearing was adjourned until March 17 when Bennett, who was also friends with members of the British Music Hall Society including instrumentalist Alan Randall, who performed with Sir Cliff Richard, was expected to formally enter pleas to his alleged sexual abuse charges and a trial date was set for September 11, 2017.
The former Rector of Oxted and Tandridge, who was a school governor at St Mary's School, Oxted, and served at churches in south west London and Somerset before moving to Surrey in the early 1970s, was released on conditional bail for him not to contact any witnesses in the prosecution's case and not to be seen in the company of any child aged under 18 years.
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