A FOUL-MOUTHED bus driver whose bus struck a boy cyclist is a former vicar once at the centre of a church sex scandal.

Self-styled "Knicker Vicar" Roger Holmes left Helmsley Parish in disgrace in 1997 after a national newspaper published details of his extra-marital affair.

He was back in trouble after he drove a First York No 6 service from the city centre towards Clifton Moor on April 12 this year.

Passenger Carol Hawkings told York Magistrates Court that Holmes' bus hit the kerb twice and the driver shouted abuse out of the window at a driver coming the other way.

"It was scary," she said. "I commented to my friend As long as we get to where we are going without any incident, we will count ourselves lucky'."

In Burton Stone Lane, a boy cyclist passed the bus at a bus stop and stopped further up the road by the kerb, the witness continued.

"I said to my friend He is going to hit that lad. He did hit the boy. We heard scraping along the side of the bus," she said.

The passenger said the bus stopped, the driver hurled abuse at the boy and then drove off.

The court heard the boy, aged 15, sustained a knee injury in the incident.

Holmes stopped some distance after the incident and would have driven on again, but other passengers told him to stay where he was while police were called, she said.

Holmes, 61, now of Heslington Road, York, denied careless driving, but was convicted after a trial.

Magistrates fined him £200 with £320 costs and £15 victim surcharge.

They also put six points on his licence to add to three he already has for an unrelated speeding offence.

Holmes, giving evidence, claimed that his driving that day was normal and denied driving erratically.

He claimed he never swore and had not sworn on April 12. He also alleged he had been driving slowly.

His solicitor Andrew Craven said Holmes had done all the law required.

The boy had stopped at a busy bus stop. Holmes had sounded his horn to warn the cyclist he was coming and slowed down. But the bus had a blind spot and he had not been able to see that the cyclist had not moved.

Mr Craven said the law assumed that all road users behaved in a competent way.

He also pointed out what he said were inconsistencies between evidence given by passengers and the boy.

After the verdict, Mr Craven revealed that Holmes no longer worked for First York and had held a Public Service Vehicle licence for many years.

A very public fall from grace

SEX allegations first surfaced against Roger Holmes in 1996.

That year, he lied to the Bishop of Whitby, the Right Reverend Gordon Bates, claiming he was not having an affair with the then parochial church council secretary Gillian Roberts.

But in 1997, her estranged husband, Adrian, co-operated with a national Sunday newspaper and let it set up a video camera next to his wife's bed.

The newspaper published video stills it said were from a sex session between her and her vicar in her home.

Holmes was reported as describing himself as "the knicker vicar".

Suspended by the bishop, Holmes admitted his affair, apologised, and resigned from Helmsley Parish.