UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today
James Macintyre 27 July 2016
Preliminary hearings are being held by the Goddard inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice this week.
The inquiry into child sex abuse in England and Wales is investigating 7,000 submissions of evidence relating to the Anglican church, according to the counsel to the inquiry.
In a preliminary hearing today at the Royal Courts of Justice, Ben Emmerson QC updated Justice Goddard, who is chairing the inquiry which could last at least another five years.
He said that 114 sources of information were being considered, along with case studies relating to church abuse, including in the Chichester Diocese.
The Anglican section of the inquiry is expected to focus to a considerable extent on abuse by the former Bishop of Lewes, Peter Ball, who was jailed last year over crimes committed in the 1980s. A legal representative of Ball was in court today.
Emmerson said that more than 7,000 items of disclosure had been received from the Archbishop’s Council, and from police forces and survivors including ‘core participants’. So far 188 applicants have been granted core participant status by Goddard. Of these, 36 relate to the Anglican church.
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