A vicar was able to continue to abuse young boys because the Church of England failed to act effectively on two separate warnings, a court was told.

The Rev David Smith was first accused of sexually abusing boys in the 1980s, but the Church merely moved him to another parish.

His behaviour was also drawn to the attention of the Church after he was recognised by a former victim when he appeared on television to comment on the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, in which a relative had died. The Church said that it would take action, but Mr Smith was able to go on allegedly to abuse another boy.

Bristol Crown Court was told that Mr Smith began abusing children during the 1970s while he was employed as an assistant housemaster at a prep school in Berkshire. He is alleged to have indecently assaulted two 13-year-old pupils there. After his ordination in 1979 he was appointed assistant curate at a church in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, where he is accused of assaulting a 15-year-old.

When the boy’s mother informed the police and church authorities, Mr Smith was moved to another parish, eventually becoming vicar of St John the Evangelist Church in Clevedon, Somerset. He is alleged to have sexually assaulted three more boys between January 1998 and April 2005. Mr Smith, 52, denies 14 charges of sexual assault and indecency against seven boys between September 1976 to May 2005.

One victim, who was allegedly abused from the age of 12, tried to break off contact with Mr Smith after he took him on holiday to Malta. The court was told that Mr Smith pestered him with letters and phone calls begging to see him.

Brendon Moorhouse, for the prosecution, said: “Some of the letters have been destroyed but the boy’s mother kept some of them. One read, ‘I’ve been left feeling like a much-loved pet that no longer gets fed or walked because you have found other interests.’

“Another letter read, ‘Obviously the centre of your universe has moved away from a middle-aged vicar to a 19-year-old nubile girl and who could blame you for that?’ ”

Mr Moorhouse told the court that DNA evidence from two of the young boys was found on cushions in Mr Smith’s house after police arrested him in October 2005. The alleged abuse came to light when the last of Mr Smith’s alleged victims, who wanted to become a priest and saw him as a mentor, confided in a female parishioner. Police then used church records to trace other victims, including one who is now a serving police officer.

Mr Moorhouse described how in 2001 one of Mr Smith’s schoolboy victims from 1977 was watching television and recognised his abuser.

He told the court: “He saw David Smith on TV because his cousin was regrettably killed in the twin towers attacks. He realised that Mr Smith was working as a priest and became concerned that he had access to children.

“He wrote to the then Bishop of Bath and Wells, Jim Thompson, about his concerns, who wrote back to say the Church had taken action to prevent anything happening.”

Mr Smith has been suspended from duty by the diocese of Bath and Wells.

Richard Cudina, 46, a cousin of Mr Smith, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and was on the 101st floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, when it was hit by the hijacked aircraft. Mr Cudina was killed.

Mr Smith gave a sermon at his cousin’s funeral in New York in October 2001.

The trial continues.

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