LONDON (ENGLAND)
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

November 10, 2020

By Alexis Jay, Sir Malcolm Evans, Ivor Frank, and Drusilla Sharpling

[Note: More than 800 documents gathered in the course of this investigation may be viewed here.]

This investigation report examines the extent of institutional failings by the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales to protect children from sexual abuse and examines the Church’s current safeguarding regime. It draws on evidence from the Inquiry’s three case studies on Ampleforth and Downside Abbeys and their respective schools, Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s School, and the Archdiocese of Birmingham.

Between 1970 and 2015, the Roman Catholic Church received more than 900 complaints involving over 3,000 instances of child sexual abuse against more than 900 individuals connected to the Church, including priests, monks and volunteers. In the same period, there were 177 prosecutions resulting in 133 convictions. Civil claims…