Victims of paedophile ‘Rev’ Terry Haynes may now ‘get some peace’ after he died half-way through a 15 year sentence for child sex abuse, an alleged victim of the pensioner said.
The 79-year-old died in hospital on July 30, while a serving prisoner at HMP Rye Hill, near Rugby.
The Wootton man was serving two prison sentences, imposed in 2014 and 2017, for abusing multiple children from the 1960s until the 1990s. At the time of his first sentencing, his barrister said dying in prison was what the self-claimed Free Church minister ‘most feared’.
An alleged victim of Haynes urged other potential victims to come forward and speak about what happened.
Raymond Chittock, who waived his right to anonymity to speak out, said: “It’s not too late. It’s never too late.
“He might not be here, he might have passed away, but there is still an opportunity to get what happened off their shoulders.
“While they may not be able to get justice, they might get some peace.”
Chittock told the Oxford Mail that he had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by Haynes from the early 2000s, starting when he was six-years-old.
He was approached by the police in 2020, he said, after detectives found videos on Haynes’ computer showing the pensioner raping the boy. The events in the videos tallied with ‘night terrors’ from which the boy – now a man – was suffering.
Thames Valley Police were said to have been investigating Haynes when the pensioner died.
Mr Chittock said he felt a certain ‘relief’ that his alleged abuser ‘can’t hurt anyone else’.
He told the Mail: “He’d always tell me I’d amount to nothing and by the time I was 18 I’d be dead or in prison.
“I’m not dead. I’ve never been to prison. I’ve got a family, I’ve got everything he said I’d never have.
“If I could face him, I’d want to say what he did could have destroyed me but I’ve made a life I’m proud of and I’m happy with.
“I would have told him that I got the life he always said I’d never have.”
Terry Haynes outside Oxford Crown Court in 2014 Picture: OM
Thames Valley Police confirmed detectives received a report in 2020 of historic sexual assault and rape committed in the mid-2000s. “Officers were investigating but following the death of the suspect, the report is now due to be filed,” a spokesman said.
In 2014, Judge Patrick Eccles condemned Haynes’ ‘gross hypocrisy’ in claiming to be a Free Church minister while also sexually abusing two children – including his own daughter.
“Whatever the true number of offences over the years, 12 rapes and 11 sexual assaults represent depravity and sexual crimes of a very grave order,” he said.
Three years later, in 2017, Haynes was given a further six year sentence after two boys recognised him from publicity surrounding the first case as the man who indecently assaulted them in Tubney Woods in the 1960s and 70s.
One of those two boys, school caretaker Jeff Harris, 56, took his own life within months of his conviction – citing the stress of the trial and saying he did not have the kind of support that a child witness would have received.
Haynes was being held at HMP Rye Hill, near Rugby, at the time of his death Picture: GOOGLE
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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.
To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward