"I Was the Boyfriend of a Monster': Victim of Paedophile Priest Speaks out As Former Archbishop of York Denies Covering up Child Abuse Claims

By Hugo Gye
Daily Mail
May 10, 2013

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2322497/Former-Archbishop-denies-cover-paedophile-priest-escaped-prosecution-child-abuse-claims.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

The Church of England was mired in a sex abuse scandal yesterday after a former choirboy alleged he was groomed and drawn into a sexual relationship by a senior cleric.

Eli Ward said he was first singled out by the Dean of Manchester, the Very Reverend Robert Waddington, at the age of 11 and was then a close companion of his over a five-year period.

The allegations made in public by Mr Ward for the first time yesterday led to suggestions of a cover-up over the Church’s response following complaints to bishops in 2003.

Victim: Eli Ward was repeatedly molested by David Waddington while a choirboy at Manchester Cathedral

But the former Archbishop of York, Lord Hope of Thornes, who at the time oversaw the Manchester diocese, said he did not tell police and social services because Church rules then did not require it and because the Dean was dying of cancer.

Mr Ward, now 40, said he was sleeping in the Dean’s bed by the time he was 13 and by his mid-teens was spending almost every weekend and many nights at the cleric’s house. He went with him on holidays to Cornwall, the Lake District, Paris and the South of France.

The abuse started when Mr Waddington began the grooming process in 1984 and ended after suspicions were raised in the Manchester diocese in 1989, Mr Ward told the Times newspaper. In 2004, Dean Waddington, who had by then retired, was stripped of his right to lead Church services by Lord Hope but no information was passed on to police or social services. The Dean died in 2007.

Yesterday Lord Hope said: ‘I strenuously deny, and am obviously disappointed at, the suggestion that myself or my team at the time would have acted negligently in this or any other safeguarding matter.

‘There is no automatic legal obligation on the Church to refer allegations by adults to the police or social services.

Scandal: Former Archbishop of York Lord Hope, left, was told of child sex abuse allegations against Dean of Manchester Robert Waddington, right, but did not report them to the police

Scandal: Former Archbishop of York Lord Hope, left, was told of child sex abuse allegations against Dean of Manchester Robert Waddington, right, but did not report them to the police

In considering whether children would be at risk from Robert Waddington I decided under these guidelines that this would not be the case given his serious ill health following cancer surgery. The following year I revoked Robert Waddington’s permission to officiate.’

Lord Hope added: ‘I am deeply aware of the pain caused to any victim of child abuse, especially at the hands of a trustworthy person within the Church.’

Mr Ward’s lawyers have now made a personal injury compensation claim against the Dean and Chapter of Manchester.

He said that until last year he thought he could deal with the memories but then he felt ‘there’s something drastically wrong with me and I then started to scream very loudly that I needed help.’

Mr Ward said he came from a poor background in Salford and joined the cathedral choir in Manchester at the age of seven.

Four years later Dean Waddington, a former headmaster and then the most senior education official working for the Church’s parliament, the General Synod, arrived in the city. He said the Dean showed him special favour, helping him with his homework, picking him up in his car to take him to choir practice, asking him out to tea and taking him for days out. He asked Mr Ward’s mother if the boy could stay with him overnight.

The room in which the boy slept had a large poster of a horrifying painting by 16th century artist Hieronymus Bosch, which gave him nightmares.

Cathedral: Waddington targeted Manchester choirboys as well as pupils at an Australian boarding school

Mr Ward said: ‘He turned round to me one day and said, “Would you rather stay in my room? Is that painting too scary for you?” and of course I said yes.’

Mr Ward began sleeping in the Dean’s bed, where eventually hugs became kissing.

He said that sexual contact began after he was distressed over a break-up with a girlfriend. He said he felt obliged to perform sexual acts when the Dean asked: ‘Do you love me this much?’

Mr Ward told the Times he had now broken off contact with his own family. He said: ‘I have no relationship with my family now because I asked severe, strong questions of my family: why did you let it happen? I was the boyfriend of a monster – so what does that make me?’

Mr Ward said that he was told by the Dean that if questioned by the Press he should lie about what was going on.

After a senior cathedral official did begin to inquire about the relationship, the Dean told Mr Ward to quit the choir in 1989 and he did so.

He last saw the Dean on his wedding day, when the Dean conducted the ceremony. Mr Ward later told his wife about the abuse. ‘As soon as I told her, our relationship split like an axe,’ he added.

The Right Reverend Paul Butler, the head of the Churches National Safeguarding Committee, said: ‘As a Church we will always apologise for past systems that let down the vulnerable and offer support to anyone whose life has been affected. Today we have robust safeguarding policies in place.’