Caldey Abbey: first male victim comes forward to describe sexual abuse

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

By Amanda Gearing and Steven Morris

February 9, 2018

Man says he was abused by Cistercian monk during family holidays on Welsh island

A man has come forward to describe how he was groomed and sexually abused as a child by a Benedictine monk on Caldey Island, intensifying calls for an inquiry into what happened at the abbey in south-west Wales.

The victim, who has told police of the abuse he was subject to during summer holiday trips to Caldey Island, is the first man to allege he was sexually assaulted by Father Thaddeus Kotik.

More than a dozen women have come forward to report offences committed by Kotik, a member of the Cistercian order of Benedictine monks who lived at Caldey Abbey on the Pembrokeshire island from 1947 until his death in 1992.

The Guardian has learned that two other men who lived and worked on Caldey Island were subsequently convicted of child sex offences.

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