Church Hit by 48 Child Abuse Claims in One Diocese, Inquiry Told

By Kaya Burgess
The Times
March 6, 2018

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/church-hit-by-48-child-abuse-claims-in-one-diocese-inquiry-told-df527p6n8

Dame Moira Gibb (left) accused the church of colluding to cover up abuse claims

The extent of the Church of England’s failure to identify, expose and punish child abusers within its ranks is set to be laid bare by a major inquiry, which heard of a “widespread culture of denial” yesterday.

Abusers were in some cases able to work unchallenged in the church for decades and evidence from witnesses will point to a catalogue of potential failures, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was told.

The three-week inquiry, which opened yesterday, heard that there have been 48 claims for compensation within just one of the church’s 42 dioceses. It also heard details of 15 cases, dating from the 1950s to more recent incidents, of priests and other church staff and volunteers who abused their positions of trust…