UNITED KINGDOM
Premier
Thu 22 Oct 2015
By Antony Bushfield
The Church of England has issued a formally apology and said it feels “deep sorrow” for failing to properly deal with allegations of sexual abuse against the former Bishop of Chichester, Rt Revd George Bell.
Accusations that Bell abused a young child between the late 1940s and early 1950s were made in 1995 but the Church has now admitted the response “fell a long way short”.
The survivor told the then Bishop of Chichester, Eric Kemp, about the abuse in August 1995 but he was only offered pastoral support and the allegations were not referred to the police.
The Church said from the information it has, it seems Bishop Kemp did not investigate the matter further.
It was not until the claim was made to Lambeth Palace in 2013 that the survivor was put in touch with the safeguarding team at the Diocese of Chichester who referred the matter to the police and offered personal support and counselling to the survivor.
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