UNITED KINGDOM
Independent
Caroline Mortimer @cjmortimer
Senior figures in the Church of England ignored the “sadistic” assault of a 15-year-old boy by a leading London vicar for 40 years, a new report has revealed.
The Church has said it will introduce a raft of changes in the way it handles sex abuse allegations against its clergy after the “deeply uncomfortable” independent report revealed the abuse of a teenage boy at the hands of Garth Moore in 1976.
Moore, who died in 1990, was a leading figure in the Church at the time and later became the chancellor of three dioceses and vicar of St Mary’s Abchurch in the City of London.
It has emerged the victim, identified as Survivor B, had disclosed “a tragic catalogue of exploitation and harm” to figures both inside and outside the Church over the years – but no firm action was taken.
Survivor B said when he told Michael Fisher – the leader of the Society of St Francis and suffragan bishop of St Germans in Cornwall who died in 2003 – he initiated an intense romantic friendship with the then 18-year-old which involved kissing but no penetrative sex.
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