PRINCE Vale, the man accused of murdering St Jude’s Anglican Church rector Richard Johnson last week, was granted bail when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Vale, 22, who is also called ‘Bomber’, was represented by attorney Arthur Kitchen, who told the court that his client attacked the priest after he attempted to have sex with him.

“The allegations are scandalous so I will choose my words carefully,” Kitchen said. “The priest took him up to his rectory and gave him a pair of pants to try on. They couldn’t fit and he took them off, at that point he was attacked and tried to ease off the priest.”

Kitchen said the priest was nude and appeared to his client to be sexually aroused.

Presiding Judge Judith Pusey then asked: “He was fighting for his honour?” “And his body,” the attorney replied.

The attorney said Vale then reached for a knife and stabbed the priest in a bid to escape his sexual advances. He said Vale had stabbed himself in the leg during the melee.

In applying for bail, Kitchen told the court that Vale was being beaten by fellow inmates and had already been injured since he had turned himself over to the police last week Monday.

“Prisoners take a dim view of certain things and they treat him with disdain and contempt. They beat him everyday in that prison,” Kitchen pleaded.

RM Pusey agreed with the attorney and granted Vale bail in the sum of $50,000 with one or two sureties. He is to return to court on December 13.

Rector Johnson’s nude body was found on a stairwell in his rectory last week Sunday night with multiple stab wounds to the left side of his upper body. Police investigators say Vale was seen running from the rectory minutes after the priest was heard crying out for help.