Ex-SAS veteran turned clergyman who served in Northern Ireland during The Troubles is defrocked after subjecting his wife to long-term domestic abuse
- Rev’d Paul Parks of St Helen’s Church in Hastings has been removed from office
- He admitted charges of domestic abuse to a church misconduct panel
- Parks subjected his wife to a ‘clear pattern’ of ‘violent and aggressive behaviour’
- Clergyman had previously served in Northern Ireland during The Troubles
The Rev’d Paul Parks has been removed from office after admitting to domestic violence
An SAS veteran turned clergyman who served in Northern Ireland during The Troubles has been defrocked after subjecting his wife to domestic abuse.
The Rev’d Paul Parks of St Helen’s Church in Hastings, East Sussex, 60, has been removed from office and banned from the Church of England for two years by a church misconduct panel.
He admitted a number of allegations of abuse made by his 61-year-old wife Lois Parks, both verbal and physical before the Bishop’s Disciplinary Tribunal.
Parks, who became an ordained Priest in 1999 after serving the Armed Forces as a Para between 1975 and 1981 and the elite SAS after 1986, married Lois in 2003.
He was prone to fits of jealous rage, the panel heard, including two episodes during their engagement in which Parks called Lois a ‘cheap whore’. After their honeymoon, he ‘pushed his new wife down on the floor, and stood over her screaming and shouting’.
In 2005, Lois made allegations of ‘abusive and manipulative behaviour’ against Parks, telling church bosses he sent ‘abusive text messages’, held her in an arm lock, and drove at high speed towards a brick wall while she was in the passenger seat.
Parks, who became an ordained Priest in 1999 after serving the Armed Forces as a Para between 1975 and 1981 and the elite SAS after 1986, married Lois in 2003
Parks ‘admitted his violent and aggressive behaviour’ but refused to fully cooperate with Bishop Stephen Cottrell, then of Reading, after he was referred to a psychologist, the Bishop’s Disciplinary Tribunal heard.
When Lois was ill following the birth of her youngest son in 2011, Parks refused to allow her to leave her bed ‘for a period of some hours’.
The panel heard that Parks ‘threatened to kill her and called her Jezabel’.
In 2017, Lois finally contacted the police after Parks held a ‘dagger-shaped letter opener’ towards her face and threatened to kill her.
Parks (left, as a Para) was prone to fits of jealous rage, the panel heard, including two episodes before their marriage in which Parks called Lois (right) a ‘cheap whore’
After Parks was arrested and interviewed under caution, though, Lois withdrew her support for any prosecution after he was admitted to a psychiatric unit.
The Bishop’s Disciplinary Tribunal ruled that a ‘clear pattern of domestic abuse throughout the marriage’ had been demonstrated.
It removed Parks from his role on account of his ‘extremely serious’ misconduct, and the ‘enormous reputational damage to the Church’ caused by it.