A JURY has heard allegations that the former senior Methodist minister in Cornwall enjoyed “celebrity status in the church” and was able to engage in alleged sexual touching of female church employees and congregation members because his behaviour was accepted as “just Steve being Steve”.

The trial of the Reverend Steven James Wild, 72, continued this afternoon at Truro Crown Court. He faces 11 charges relating to alleged sexual offences against several women between 2004 and 2019. The jury was sworn in earlier today (Wednesday, November 4), before the prosecution began its opening statement.

Wild, of Steeple Close, St Ives, is charged with 10 counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault (as classified under the Sexual Offences Act of 1956). The alleged incidents are said to have taken place in Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Southport, Bristol and Derbyshire. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Wild served as chair of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Methodist District from 2008 until 2022, but was suspended from his role in September 2021 while a safeguarding investigation was carried out. In March 2022, it was confirmed he would not be returning to ministry.

Speaking for the prosecution, Brian Fitzherbert returned to the first complainant, whose story he had begun in the morning. He explained she had tried to avoid contact with Mr Wild in future, only to find herself in his company on a Cornish Methodist Church trip to the Isles of Scilly, “to her dismay, having booked a place not knowing he was going to be there”.

The complainant entered a chapel with the aim of speaking to the local minister. “She felt someone put an arm around her and found Mr Wild had come into the chapel. He said ‘hello love’.” The prosecution said Mr Wild did not address the minister, who left the chapel, leaving the complainant alone with him. Mr Fitzherbert said Mr Wild then allegedly repeated the previous behaviour, “putting his arms around her, making noises and kissing her on the cheek”.

The complainant began to cry. “In response, he continued to kiss her. She said, ‘I was standing there crying – there was no doubt he knew I didn’t want this”. Mr Wild released his grip when someone came into the chapel. The complainant was reluctant to raise the alarm as the trip was being covered by the media and “she didn’t want to be front page news tomorrow”.

On the journey home on the Scillonian, she felt seasick and went out on deck, “leaning on the side to be sick. Mr Wild came up behind with some food, asking ‘can I tempt you with anything?’ He put his arm around her, at the base of her back, hand on the waistband of her trousers, asking, ‘are you sure I can’t tempt you with anything?’ She remembers thinking, she didn’t care if it was intended to be innuendo, and refused the food.”

Upon her return, she told a trusted friend what had happened. Mr Fitzherbert said: “She got an earful; the friend told her ‘you can’t say things like that about him, he’s a wonderful man, don’t waste anyone’s time telling them about it’.”

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The second complainant was training to be a minister in the Methodist Church, and attended a conference with her then partner at a civic hall in Dronfield, Sheffield in 2005. Mr Wild was the headline speaker, described by Mr Fitzherbert as “an attraction used to encourage people to attend”.

As delegates gathered and chatted, “Mr Wild hugged [the complainant], and she accepted that hug – but felt both his hands move down her back to her bottom. He placed his hands on her bottom and applied pressure for, she estimated, about five seconds. Shortly afterwards, she told her partner Mr Wild had felt her bottom, and from that day on, they talked about that incident whenever he appeared at an event.”

The second complainant was prompted to report the incident upon seeing a newspaper report about the safeguarding review in September 2021, upon which she contacted the safeguarding lead for the area.

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In July 2011, a third complainant met Mr Wild at a Methodist church conference in Southport. “As she was leaving, he approached her and said he wanted a private word and to pray for her. He took her to a small empty side room, knelt and invited her to do the same. As they prayed, he began to stroke his hand up and down the small of her back. It felt like an intimate touch that only a partner should do, and it was unrequested and unwanted.

“It shocked her it could take place in this context. After it happened, she felt anxious that if she reported what happened, it could affect her position and status in the church because he held a senior position.”

Mr Wild was later elected president of the Methodist Conference, a senior position within the church. In September 2015, he walked around a meeting table to kneel again at the woman’s feet, “touching the side of her waist and began to stroke the small of her back. Again this was unrequested intimate physical contact, and this time she complained.” The prosecution alleges that in spite of an order not to be alone with Mr Wild in an office, he dropped to his knees and prayed on further occasions in October 2015.

“The prosecution case is that he found the sensation of stroking the small of her back enjoyable. He appears to have been fixated on that area of the body. It amounts to sexual touching, and there is no evidence she wanted it to happen.”

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It is further alleged that in 2014, Mr Wild met the fourth complainant - a Methodist church employee whose interview panel he had sat on - at a conference in Sidmouth, where he was again the speaker. “He was someone she considered to have a celebrity status in the church,” said Mr Fitzherbert.

At lunch, Mr Wild was sitting with a group of people and gestured to the woman to sit in an empty seat beside him. “Mr Wild moved closer to her, saying ‘I was just telling these lovely ladies you are one of the best appointments we’ve ever made, love”. He then continued to talk to the others, and as he did so he placed his hand on her knee and slid it up the skirt she was wearing towards her thigh.

“To let him know she was uncomfortable, she shuffled her body away, but his hand remained. She crossed her legs, it slipped off, and she turned away, but he put his hand on her shoulder and turned her back to face the table. Although upset, she did not feel there was anyone she could go to, as anyone in a position of power would be close to him and seek to protect him.”

The fourth complainant encountered Mr Wild again, this time at a forum in Exeter in 2018. “She became aware of him standing at her right hand side, very close to her. He put his hand on the small of her back and his right hand on her shoulder, and pushed his groin against her … whispering to her that it was ‘lovely’ to her and she was ‘still our best appointment’. There was no reaction from anyone present, and she went to the lavatory to get away from him.

“She felt very alone. That behaviour was just accepted by the church as ‘just Steve being Steve’.”

On a third occasion, the fourth complainant met Mr Wild at a forum in Bristol. “He came up behind her as she sat at a table, put his arm around her so it was on her chest … She got up and sat somewhere else.”

Mr Fitzherbert alleged that Mr Wild “was going out of his way to touch her whenever he could, pushing up his groin against her thigh”. He added: “Each touch was sexual. He clearly derived gratification from touching her when others were present, and willing to overlook it as ‘Steve being Steve’.”

The fourth complainant reported the incidents in 2021 upon becoming aware of the inquiry.

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The fifth and final complainant was also a Methodist church employee who had been interviewed by Mr Wild, and had also attended the church conference in Southport in 2015. “Mr Wild was president of the conference, a position in the church of the most power,” said Mr Fitzherbert.

The complainant went out for a meal at a local pub with other delegates. “Mr Wild arrived later than everyone else and seemed excitable.” Sitting next to the complainant and speaking to the group, “he leaned over her and put his hand high up her thigh and leg, with the whole of his hand on top of her thigh, his fingers curved around towards her inner thigh. While he told a story that lasted for minutes, he kept his hand there, exerting consistent pressure.”

The complainant was “embarrassed and couldn’t believe it was happening, but felt she couldn’t say anything at the time, and that reporting it would end her career”. Even after confiding to colleagues, she “never felt able to confront him because people would comment about his ‘tactile behaviour’ as ‘just Steve’.”

Mr Fitzherbert continued: “He felt entitled to derive pleasure from placing his hand on her upper thigh perhaps because the role he played in her appointment. Touching the upper thigh of a woman is clearly sexual in nature.”

Mr Fitzherbert told the jury “Mr Wild accepted he would hug and kiss people as a greeting but denied he touched them in the ways described by them, or in any sexual way at all.”

The trial, which is expected to last three weeks, will continue tomorrow with a video recording of an interview of the first complainant, who will then take the witness box.