A minister at a Brentford church has expressed his sadness after a former pastor was jailed for taking thousands of indecent photos.
Andrew Gilroy, who spent more than a decade at Syon Mission Church in Beech Avenue, Brentford, abused his position to befriend teenage boys and invite them home for photo sessions.
By the time police caught up with him, the 46-year-old had amassed more than 3,000 images of the boys, who were aged 16 and 17 at the time.
Bearded, bespectacled and bald, Gilroy, who now lives in Old Ruislip Road, Northolt, was jailed for three years at Isleworth Crown Court last Friday.
Rev David Beazley, of Brentford Free Church, described him as a 'colleague and friend'.
"We share the sadness of the whole situation and our hope is that there will now be opportunity for all those directly and indirectly affected to move on," he added.
Gilroy admitted 13 charges – four of paying for the sexual services of a child, four of taking indecent photographs of a child, three of making indecent photographs, one of distributing them on the internet and one of possessing 3,471 indecent images of children between January 2006 and his arrest in August last year.
