WALES
The Guardian

December 5, 2017

By Amanda Gearing and Steven Morris

‘Alice’ says she fled UK to escape the painful memories but would return to give evidence in any inquiry into abbey

A victim of a monk who abused girls on Caldey Island has described how she took drugs to numb the emotional pain and eventually fled the UK to escape the memories.

Alice – not her real name – told the Guardian her earliest memories were of the monk, Thaddeus Kotik, and how he lured her with sweets and pets into dens he had set up around the remote island off the Welsh coast.

She had planned not to return to the UK but now says she will come back to give evidence if an inquiry is called into the abuse she and other girls suffered and how it was covered up.

Caldey Abbey…