Uk's Most Senior Catholic "More Concerned with Church's Reputation Than Child Sex Abuse Victims', Report Finds

By Gabriella Swerling
The Telegraph
June 20, 2019

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/20/uks-senior-catholic-ignored-child-sex-abuse-victims-protect/

Cardinal Vincent Nichols CREDIT: KIRSTY O'CONNOR/PA

The most senior Catholic in the UK stands accused of being more concerned with protecting the Church’s reputation than historic victims of child sex abuse in a government inquiry report.

An official report published yesterday concluded that children could have been saved in the Archdiocese of Birmingham had the Catholic Church not “repeatedly failed” to alert police to allegations.

Since the mid 1930s, there have been more than 130 allegations of child sexual abuse made against 78 people associated with the Archdiocese. At least 13 of them have been convicted in criminal courts and three others have been cautioned.

However the true scale of offending is likely to be “far higher”, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) concluded. It said that "in some cases, the lack of action by the church meant that the abuser was free to continue to commit acts of child sexual abuse".

In his former role as Archbishop of Birmingham between 2000 and 2009, Cardinal Vincent Nichols claimed that a documentary - about the confrontation of a "serial child abuser" priest after he fled to the US - was "insensitive".

However the report criticised Cardinal Nichols, 73, who now sits as the Archbishop of Westminster, for failing to prioritise the welfare of children over the reputation of the church during his tenure.

It found that his reaction to the 2003 BBC documentary "led many to think that the Church was still more concerned with protecting itself than the protection of children" and concluded that his response to the screening was "misplaced and missed the point".

Following publication of the report Professor Alexis Jay, chair of the inquiry, said: "I am truly shocked by the scale of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Birmingham. The number of perpetrators and abused children is likely to be far higher than the figures suggest.

"Victims and survivors’ allegations were mostly ignored for years, while perpetrators avoided prosecution. It is clear that the church could have stopped children being abused if it had not been so determined to protect its own reputation. We hope this report will help ensure that never happens again."

The report also highlighted a row in which the Archdiocese refused to disclose the name of an alleged perpetrator to COPCA (Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults).

It concluded that at the time there was "mistrust and a poor working relationship" between the two parties and referenced a "prolonged argument" regarding the identify of an anonymous priest, known as RC-F167.

The report found that this was "a dispute that Archbishop Nichols should have intervened to resolve".

However survivors said that the most concerning aspect of the report was the finding that the Archdiocese is "still falling short in its child safeguarding arrangements” despite recommendations from major reform reports in the 2001 Nolan Report and the 2007 Cumberlege Report.

Problems such as record-keeping "do not seem to have been addressed to date", the authors concluded.

Peter Saunders, founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) said: "They have to get their act together. Children are inherently unsafe in that place. That’s the thing that strikes terror into my heart.

"This is 2019 - I was abused 50 years ago and children are still in danger today. That can’t be allowed."

The investigation into the Archdiocese of Birmingham examined its response to child sexual abuse in the cases of four priests.

These included: John Tolkein, the son of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit author, JRR Tolkein, who was first accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy in 1957 but no action was ever taken to ascertain whether other children may be at risk. Instead, Tolkein was sent for "treatment" and died before ever being convicted of an offence.

Another former priest referenced in the report was James Robinson, a motorbike-riding "role-model" to his victims who is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence.

After avoiding prosecution for 25 years, he was eventually extradited from the US after being helped to flee there in 1985. He had continued to receive financial support from the church for seven years.

In 2003 a BBC documentary team tracked him down to a caravan park in California and confronted him. At the time, Cardinal Nichols, who was then Archbishop of Birmingham, issued a press release complaining about the programme and accusing the broadcaster of anti-Catholic bias, having "negative slant" and objected to the way the programme makers had approached and "harrassed" priests within the Archdiocese.

In his evidence to the inquiry, Cardinal Nichols accepted that he did not, at the time, "acknowledge sufficiently" the fact that the broadcast gave "a platform to the voices of those who had been abused" and said that he would now not issue a similar press release.

The other two priests were the "charismatic" Samuel Penney, who in 1993 pleaded guilty to 10 offences against young boys and girls whom he groomed from families who worshipped in his parishes, and an anonymous priest known as RC-F167.

There is currently a legal restriction in place banning the media from identifying him as he has never been prosecuted.

The Archdiocese of Birmingham released a statement saying: "We accept that we have failed victims and survivors of abuse and again apologise for the grievous failings we have made in the past. Apologies are just words though, if not backed up by action.”

It added that it will review the IICSA findings and that the Archdiocese has already made changes to its practices and processes "to ensure an open and compassionate approach to victims and survivors".

Cardinal Nichols said following the report: "I thank IICSA for their review of the past and in my witness statements address all the points contained in the report. I look forward to the next phase which I trust will help us in our present and future tasks."