Rustington man’s OBE recognises work to help others

CHURCHES should be doing more to support ex-offenders, according to a Rustington man who helped to found a charity working with former prisoners, and has now been made an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

For 28 years until it was merged into another Christian charity four months ago, Peter Denison was the chairman of Stepping Stones, which provided accommodation and support for those leaving prison.

The citation states his OBE is “for services to the rehabilitation of offenders”, reflecting not only his 35-year career as a probation officer, but also the Christian calling of his charity service.

Peter said: “People need rehabilitation which incorporates that kind of support, where they can link up with a church, make new friends, have new objectives.

“As a society, we provide a lot for the body and soul of the man, but not very much for the spirit, where the heart is and where people are motivated.”

Long experience of working with offenders confirmed Peter’s belief that faith was to be found even behind bars. “I find many, many guys, when they are at their wits’ end, possibly suicidal, often cry out to God, literally: ‘If there’s a God, please help me.’ Somehow, God responds to that heart’s cry, and things happen.”

He held senior roles in the Prison Fellowship organisation and was also national chairman of the Probation Service Christian Fellowship, but his faith was not always welcome in his profession.

“I really felt that the spiritual, or Christian, aspect of offenders was not seen as a legitimate area to encourage.

“Nowadays, it is quite acceptable to have faith organisations involved in prisons, but it didn’t use to be.”

Peter, 69, of Jervis Avenue, is a member of All Saints’ Church, Wick. He comes from a long family line of Army officers, running back 254 years, consecutively.

After officer training at Sandhurst, he joined the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment in 1963, rising to the rank of captain before resigning his commission in 1968 and training as a probation officer at Bristol University.

He worked in south-west London from 1971 until taking early retirement in 1997, and then joined Sussex Probation Service the same year, finally retiring in 2006.

Peter is married to Elaine and they have three grown-up children and six grandchildren.