A former vicar has admitted raping a boy under 14 in a church.

Ifor Whittaker, now 80, pleaded guilty at Hove Crown Court to rape and gross indecency while he was the vicar at a village church.

Whittaker was going by the name Father Colin Pritchard at the time of the offences in the late 1990s.

He was vicar at St John The Baptist Church in Sedlescombe near Hastings.

The victim is now a man in his 30s.

Whittaker has been remanded in custody for sentencing on November 12.