Demands For ‘Church Abuse’ Probe
Victims in child abuse cases involving Church of England officials are calling for further investigations into possible similar offences in the past. Three people have been jailed since April for crimes dating back decades. In each instance, the church had been alerted but failed to take action.
The victims warn usual vetting checks will not uncover historic cases if the church covered up previous abuse. The Archbishop of Canterbury has spoken of his “deep sorrow” over the cases.
Church officials say they now have “robust” child protection policies in place. Derrick Norris, a churchwarden at Emmanuel Church in Northampton was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison last month for raping and abusing a young girl and sexually abusing a teenage boy.
The other recent cases involved the Rev David Smith, 52, of St John’s Road, Clevedon, Somerset, who was jailed for sexually abusing six boys over a 30-year period, and former choirmaster Peter Halliday, 61, from Farnborough, Hants, sent to prison for sex offences on boys in the 1980s.
Halliday admitted the abuse 17 years ago, but left the Church quietly on condition he had no further contact with children. After the Halliday trial, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said any case in which the church failed to prove itself a safe place for children was “deplorable”.
“The principle that the welfare of the child must always take priority has sometimes been misunderstood to mean that a child should not be put through the distress of public legal procedures,” he said.
Meanwhile, the cases have prompted the Bishop of Manchester to order an independent investigation into the files of 850 members of the clergy.
The Right Rev Nigel McCulloch is to appoint a lawyer to make sure none of the files contain outstanding child protection issues.