Church Abuse Survivors Set out Demands

By Alex Williams
Premier
July 7, 2017

https://www.premier.org.uk/News/UK/Church-abuse-survivors-set-out-demands


Survivors of abuse within the Church of England have been setting out their demands, following a damning independent review.

There is a call for safeguarding processes concerning children and vulnerable people to be handled by a body without links to the church.

Graham Sawyer - who was abused by Bishop Peter Ball - told the Guardian: "I fear that until it does so this is going to become worse and worse as matters have simply gone too far now."

The 'An Abuse of Faith' review published by Dame Moira Gibb last month found the church had colluded and concealed abuse committed by Ball (pictured below). The Archbishop of Canterbury Most Rev Justin Welby later offered an unreserved apology.


Campaigners plan to protest outside York Minster on Sunday as members of the Church of England's governing body hold a four-day meeting there this weekend.

One of them, Matt Ineson has demanded that several bishops be dismissed and an independent review be held into how the church handles his allegation of being raped by a vicar as a teenager.

He told the newspaper "many members of synod have indicated that they do intend to come out of the Minster to speak to us on Sunday."

Dame Moira Gibb's review found Lord George Carey - Archbishop of Canterbury at the time Ball committed the abuse - didn't listen to survivors.

Graham Sawyer and another survivor of Ball's abuse, Phil Johnson, have demanded a criminal investigation into whether Lord Carey deliberately concealed evidence.

Bishop Peter Ball was sentenced in 2015 to 32 months' in prison after admitting the abuse of 18 children between 1977 and 1992.