Sexual abuse inquiry: Papal nuncio
should be expelled from UK
Riel Karmy-Jones QC, Counsel to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), confirmed that a series of letters had been sent to Adams since November.
Abbot Martin Shipperlee of Ealing Abbey was head of St Benedict’s Junior School in West London from 1993 to 1999. David Pearce and Laurence Soper, two Benedictine priests from the abbey who taught at the £16,845-a-year school, were jailed in 2009 and 2017 for historic child abuse offences. Two ex-teachers who taught at the school at the time of the sex-abuse allegations described the institution as “a bit like the mafia”.
Abbot Shipperlee admitted to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) he failed to report allegations about Pearce and Soper to the police.
He said: “Because I simply did not believe that this was possible. I was outraged that such an accusation could be made against someone of whom I - well, it did not occur to me that it was possible that this sort of thing could happen.”
In October 2009, Pearce was jailed for eight years for abuse at the school from 1972 to 1992, as well as one offence in 2007.
Soper was jailed for 18 years at the Old Bailey in December 2017 after being on the run for five years. He was arrested in Kosovo and extradited to the UK, where he was convicted of 19 counts of child sex abuse.
In a witness statement to the inquiry on Thursday, Abbot Shipperlee claimed he was unaware of receiving any complaints against Laurence Soper between 1980 and 2001.
The inquiry then heard a statement from a mother, whose four-year-old son was going to St Benedict’s junior school around 1997, saying a teacher had warned her about both Soper and Pearce.
She wrote: “A senior member of the office staff approached me and told me not to leave my son, who would have been four at the time, on his own in the office at any time when Father David or Abbot Laurence were there.
“The person then told me that the child would be safer because they preferred boys with blond hair and blue eyes.
“The person then told me that Father David had been moved from the junior school to keep him away from the younger boys."
In October 2001, the Archdiocese of Westminster wrote to Abbot Shipperlee with a victim's claim of abuse by Soper.
A further letter in December, 2001 from the Archdiocese to Abbot Shiperlee said “the serious claim against Abbot Laurence Soper should be reported to the child protection team at Ealing Police Station”.
Inquiry counsel Riel Karmuy-Jones, QC, asked Abbot Shipperlee why he still had not informed the police despite being advised to do so. He replied he was “convinced in my own mind it must be a spurious claim”.
Ms Karmuy-Jones said: “You took the view that your opinion of the situation had more weight than the opinion of the Diocese of Westminster?”
Abbot Shipperlee said: “Yes. I was wrong.”
Ms Karmuy-Jones replied: “Is that how you have approached safeguarding during your time?”
Abbot Shipperlee said: “No, you can see plenty of times when I have not done that, but you do have to make the judgment yourself.”
Despite not informing the police, Abbot Shipperlee went on to warn Bassingbourn Barracks - where Soper acted as chaplain in the army training regiment in 2002 - about the allegations.
In 2004, another allegation of rape and corporal punishment was made against Soper from the 1970s.
But Abbot Shipperlee admitted not asking for a risk assessment about Soper, who was still a monk at the monastery which is next to the school, as he “didn’t think it necessary”.
On Wednesday, the inquiry heard statements from two ex-teachers who described St Benedict’s at the time of the abuse allegations as “a bit like the mafia”.
One teacher said in a statement “if anybody complained or said anything about Pearce, Laurence Soper would protect him and to complain meant putting your job on the line.
“I didn't know what to say to the boy. There had been a number of complaints against Pearce.”
A senior accounts assistant, who worked from 1995 to 2005, said she was warned by St Benedict’s head master, Dr Dachs after complaining about Pearce's behaviour.
In a statement, she said: “On most Friday afternoons when I was on my own in the office, Father David would bring two or three boys to his office. He would shut the door and cover the glass window in the door with paper so that nobody could see into the office.
“I can't remember how old they were, but they were not from the junior school, so would have been 11 or older.
“I was concerned about this so I contacted the headmaster, Dr Dachs. He told me, 'If you know what's good for you, keep your head down and do your job'.
“A short time later, I was talking to Abbot Laurence and I mentioned my concerns to him. He told me not to worry because the allegations against Father David were unfounded.
“I said that he was still around boys and Abbot Laurence said that Father David 'just liked little boys'. I asked why Father David had been moved from the junior school and he said because he was 'a sick man'."
The inquiry into sex abuse is the largest ever Government inquiry and is expected to last until at least 2020.
It is looking at 13 different investigations, including the Catholic Church.
Auckland rugby club to replace trophy named after convicted sex offender
Danielle Clent, Stuffshould be expelled from UK
BY BARRY DUKE
THE Pope’s representative in Britain, Archbishop Edward Adams, ought to be jailed or kicked out of the UK for failing to cooperate with a child sex abuse inquiry.
David Enright, a prominent lawyer representing victims of abuse in Catholic schools, has written to Theresa May, urging the Prime Minister to expel US-born Adams, above who stands accused of :
Cowering behind his diplomatic immunity.
Enright, a solicitor with the London law firm Howe and Co, raised the question of the nuncio’s position after the inquiry was told on Monday that the senior cleric had been slow to respond to repeated requests to hand over documents about mistreatment of children at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s school in west London.
Riel Karmy-Jones QC, Counsel to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), confirmed that a series of letters had been sent to Adams since November.
Richard Scorer, a specialist abuse lawyer at the law firm Slater and Gordon, told the inquiry:
It is absolutely outrageous that the papal nuncio seeks to hide behind diplomatic immunity to avoid giving information to the inquiry. Yet again it shows the Vatican stalling and covering up scandal and gives the lie to their claims of change.
Prof Alexis Jay, chair of the IICSA, has powers to call evidence, including enforcing imprisonment of those who defy a request. The dispute between church and state, however, is complicated because the archbishop is also a diplomat.
Karmy-Jones said:
As part of the investigation, the solicitor to the inquiry has written to to the apostolic nuncio to request that he provide a statement in connection with these investigations. The apostolic nuncio is covered by diplomatic immunity.
The inquiry’s request was for a “voluntary statement” covering a number of areas about the handling of complaints about Catholic schools in England and Wales and specifically relating to investigations at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s school. Karmy-Jones added:
The inquiry received confirmation that its request was being carefully considered. But, despite a number of further requests for updates the inquiry has not yet received a statement or any substantive responses to its correspondence.
In his opening statement, Enright said:
Rather than answer [the inquiry’s] requests for evidence, the nuncio, secreted in his papal residence in Wimbledon, first hid behind his diplomatic status and then simply refused to even acknowledge the repeated and ever more urgent letters.
This showed a “flagrant disregard” for the inquiry, he suggested.
The penalty for failing to comply with a notice from the chair [of the inquiry] is up to 51 weeks imprisonment. The papal nuncio needs to know that he has only three options: offer up the evidence, face criminal prosecutions or face expulsion from the UK.
He told the chair:
Do not be deterred by concerns that archbishop Adams may cower behind his diplomatic immunity in order to deny you vital evidence on child abuse and to evade the force of British law.
In his letter to the PM, Enright said the evidence sought:
Relates to the nuncio’s records of, and handling of, allegations of child sex abuse, including in relation to two convicted clerical child sex offenders [Andrew Soper and David Pearce].
However, it appears, that due to the diplomatic immunity enjoyed by the Holy See, the inquiry may be powerless to compel the nuncio to provide that evidence. That obstruction of a public inquiry into such grave and criminal matters cannot be tolerated. Should archbishop Adams fail to comply … then our clients ask that you exercise your powers to expel him from the UK.
Earlier, Karmy-Jones told the inquiry:
Two of the current [Ealing Abbey] monks are presently under restrictions following allegations of child sexual abuse.
One has since left the school. It would be for the inquiry to consider:
Whether safeguarding problems are still ongoing, and whether children remain at risk.
In 2017, a former abbot was jailed for 18 years after being found guilty of 19 rapes and sexual offences at St Benedict’s. Father Andrew Soper, above, fled the UK in an attempt to escape justice. He fled to Kosovo with £182,000 from the Vatican bank in a bid to avoid responsibility for the abuse at fee-paying St Benedict’s in Ealing, west London.
The inquiry heard that sexual assaults often occurred during corporal punishment inflicted by senior monks. Pupils were sometimes forced to perform sexual acts and, on other occasions, raped.
Ruth Henke QC, representing the Ealing Abbey monastic community, apologised for all past abuse. She told the inquiry:
I offer a sincere, unreserved and profound apology to each and every survivor. For all the harm caused to survivors, we are truly, truly sorry and will never cease saying sorry.
Kate Gallafent QC, representing the English Benedictine Congregation (EBC), said the papal nuncio had replied to the latest letter from IICSA.
The nuncio did send a response via the Foreign and Commonwealth Office because that was the appropriate channel.
In a separate statement, Christopher Jamison, Abbot President of the EBC, above, said:
I am truly sorry for what has happened and apologise unequivocally to all those who suffered and were abused by anyone connected with our abbeys and schools. IICSA’s report published in 2018 highlighted how flawed many of our past responses have been. We continue to work conscientiously to ensure our communities are safe environments for young people both now and in the future. We know how important this work is to survivors as well.
We continue to work...? Implies that you have absolutely no idea what has happened in your Abbey.
Whilst the inquiry hearings will continue to hear from victims and survivors, there may be others whose voices have not been heard and to whom we should listen. If they have not yet contacted the authorities I would urge them to do so.
The hearing continues.
So much for confession and repentance. The church appears to still be trying desperately to minimize the monetary damage to itself with flagrant disregard for the victims of paedophile priests.
Ealing, London
Pope admits sexual abuse of nuns by priests
in Catholic Church for first time
Andrew Buncombe The Independent
Pope Francis has for the first time admitted the Catholic Church has an ongoing problem with priests and even bishops who sexually abuse nuns, saying that more must be done to prevent it.
Speaking to reporters aboard the papal plane as he returned to the Vatican after a visit to the United Arab Emirates, he said some of the nuns had been used as sex slaves.
“It is true ... there have been priests and even bishops who have done this. I think it is still going on because something does not stop just because you have become aware of it,” he said, according to the Associated Press.
“We have been working on this for a long time. We have suspended some priests because of this.”
Suspended? Should this be a zero-tolerance sin? Will these evil emissaries get another opportunity to violate more of God's handmaidens and blaspheme the Name of God?
The Pope made the comments in response to questions about an article that appeared last week in a Vatican monthly magazine about the abuse of nuns in the church.
The magazine, Women Church World, revealed that some nuns were forced to abort the priests’ children or bear children that the priests refuse to recognise as their children.
“Should more be done? Yes,” the Pope said. “Do we have the will? Yes. But it is a path that we have already begun.”
It doesn't have to be a long path! Zero Tolerance! Defrock them and report them to the appropriate police. Do you think God will be gentle with them?
The AP said in recent months, more and more nuns had been coming forward to report abuse, encouraged by the #MeToo movement, which drew strength from a flurry of revelations of assault and abuse against celebrities and senior figures in industry and the media in October 2017. Producer Harvey Weinstein, who has been charged with assault, has denied the allegations.
‘I beg the Lord’s forgiveness’ for child abuse ‘betrayal’
Pope Francis at a service in Knock, Ireland
The news agency said that in 2018, the International Union of Superiors General, which represents more than 500,000 Catholic nuns, urged their members to report abuse.
The Pope said that former Pope Benedict dissolved a religious order of women shortly after his election as pontiff in 2005 “because slavery had become part of it (the religious order), even sexual slavery on the part of priests and the founder”.
He did not name the group, but Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said it was a French order.
Before he became pope, Benedict was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department that investigates sexual abuse. The pope at the time was John Paul.
Ratzinger blocked from investigating priestly abuse of nuns
Then-cardinal Ratzinger wanted to investigate the religious order where women were being abused but he was blocked, Pope Francis said, without saying who prevented the probe.
Pope Francis has summoned key bishops from around the world to a summit later this month at the Vatican to find a unified response on how to protect children from sexual abuse by clergy.
Asked if there would be some kind of similar action to confront abuse of nuns in the church, he said: “I want to move forward. We are working on it.”
Move faster Francis, Nuns are suffering and God is not happy about it, I assure you.
Catholic Abbot failed to report child sex-abuse allegations against priests at top school
THE Abbot of a Benedictine abbey withheld allegations from police about priests accused of child sex abuse at a leading Catholic school, an inquiry heard this week.
By JOE DUGGAN, ExpressAbbot Martin Shipperlee of Ealing Abbey was head of St Benedict’s Junior School in West London from 1993 to 1999. David Pearce and Laurence Soper, two Benedictine priests from the abbey who taught at the £16,845-a-year school, were jailed in 2009 and 2017 for historic child abuse offences. Two ex-teachers who taught at the school at the time of the sex-abuse allegations described the institution as “a bit like the mafia”.
Abbot Shipperlee admitted to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) he failed to report allegations about Pearce and Soper to the police.
He said: “Because I simply did not believe that this was possible. I was outraged that such an accusation could be made against someone of whom I - well, it did not occur to me that it was possible that this sort of thing could happen.”
In October 2009, Pearce was jailed for eight years for abuse at the school from 1972 to 1992, as well as one offence in 2007.
Soper was jailed for 18 years at the Old Bailey in December 2017 after being on the run for five years. He was arrested in Kosovo and extradited to the UK, where he was convicted of 19 counts of child sex abuse.
In a witness statement to the inquiry on Thursday, Abbot Shipperlee claimed he was unaware of receiving any complaints against Laurence Soper between 1980 and 2001.
The inquiry then heard a statement from a mother, whose four-year-old son was going to St Benedict’s junior school around 1997, saying a teacher had warned her about both Soper and Pearce.
Laurence Soper was jailed in 2017 for 18 years for child sex-abuse offences (Image: Metropolitan Police)
She wrote: “A senior member of the office staff approached me and told me not to leave my son, who would have been four at the time, on his own in the office at any time when Father David or Abbot Laurence were there.
“The person then told me that the child would be safer because they preferred boys with blond hair and blue eyes.
“The person then told me that Father David had been moved from the junior school to keep him away from the younger boys."
In October 2001, the Archdiocese of Westminster wrote to Abbot Shipperlee with a victim's claim of abuse by Soper.
David Pearce and Laurence Soper taught at St Benedicts School when the abuse took place (Image: NC)
A further letter in December, 2001 from the Archdiocese to Abbot Shiperlee said “the serious claim against Abbot Laurence Soper should be reported to the child protection team at Ealing Police Station”.
Inquiry counsel Riel Karmuy-Jones, QC, asked Abbot Shipperlee why he still had not informed the police despite being advised to do so. He replied he was “convinced in my own mind it must be a spurious claim”.
Ms Karmuy-Jones said: “You took the view that your opinion of the situation had more weight than the opinion of the Diocese of Westminster?”
Abbot Shipperlee said: “Yes. I was wrong.”
Ms Karmuy-Jones replied: “Is that how you have approached safeguarding during your time?”
Abbot Shipperlee said: “No, you can see plenty of times when I have not done that, but you do have to make the judgment yourself.”
Despite not informing the police, Abbot Shipperlee went on to warn Bassingbourn Barracks - where Soper acted as chaplain in the army training regiment in 2002 - about the allegations.
In 2004, another allegation of rape and corporal punishment was made against Soper from the 1970s.
But Abbot Shipperlee admitted not asking for a risk assessment about Soper, who was still a monk at the monastery which is next to the school, as he “didn’t think it necessary”.
On Wednesday, the inquiry heard statements from two ex-teachers who described St Benedict’s at the time of the abuse allegations as “a bit like the mafia”.
One teacher said in a statement “if anybody complained or said anything about Pearce, Laurence Soper would protect him and to complain meant putting your job on the line.
“I didn't know what to say to the boy. There had been a number of complaints against Pearce.”
A senior accounts assistant, who worked from 1995 to 2005, said she was warned by St Benedict’s head master, Dr Dachs after complaining about Pearce's behaviour.
In a statement, she said: “On most Friday afternoons when I was on my own in the office, Father David would bring two or three boys to his office. He would shut the door and cover the glass window in the door with paper so that nobody could see into the office.
“I can't remember how old they were, but they were not from the junior school, so would have been 11 or older.
“I was concerned about this so I contacted the headmaster, Dr Dachs. He told me, 'If you know what's good for you, keep your head down and do your job'.
“A short time later, I was talking to Abbot Laurence and I mentioned my concerns to him. He told me not to worry because the allegations against Father David were unfounded.
“I said that he was still around boys and Abbot Laurence said that Father David 'just liked little boys'. I asked why Father David had been moved from the junior school and he said because he was 'a sick man'."
The inquiry into sex abuse is the largest ever Government inquiry and is expected to last until at least 2020.
It is looking at 13 different investigations, including the Catholic Church.
Ealing, UK
Marist Brother Claudius Pettit was convicted for sexual abuse on a boy in the rugby first XV at Lower Hutt's St Bernard's College.
An Auckland rugby club trophy named after a convicted sex offender will be replaced following a complaint from a victim of child sex abuse.
Upon learning of the Marist Brothers Old Boys Rugby Club trophy in December, sex abuse survivor Patrick Hill called for the Brother Claudius Cup to be renamed.
The cup is named after Marist Brother Claudius Petitt, who sexually abused a boy at a Wellington school.
Petitt, originally named Malcolm Thomas Petitt, was convicted for sexual abuse on a boy in the rugby first XV at Lower Hutt's St Bernard's College - believed to be in the 1990s. Petitt died in 2015.
In an email to Marist Brothers, Hill, who attended St Bernard's at the time of the offending and was abused himself by Brother Patrick Bignell, said the award needed to be reallocated "to someone who is a role model for all".
"As you can imagine, most people, including well known All Blacks who have come from your club, will not be aware that this award is in the name of a convicted paedophile and I cannot imagine anyone who would want to receive this award in the name of such a person.
"Please reallocate this award immediately and let me know when you have done so to ensure that any of his victims, and the general public, do not think that your rugby club supports paedophiles or reveres them in any way."
Hill told Stuff he was particularly horrified with the fact the trophy was for most tries scored.
In an emailed response to Hill on January 23, the rugby club said it acknowledged there was a cup in the name of a "convicted paedophile" and said it was "entirely inappropriate".
"[We] apologise for the oversight in not actioning sooner its removal from our club trophy list and for the subsequent stress that it may have caused," the email said.
"We can confirm that we have removed all reference to the Brother Claudius Cup from our club website and have arranged for a replacement trophy to be purchased and issued on an annual basis under a different name in order to acknowledge the most tries scored."
St Bernard's old boy Patrick Hill said the trophy should be reallocated to someone who is a role model for all.
Hill said the response from the club was swift and was the only appropriate action to take.
He said other faith-based institutions could learn from the prompt remedial actions and apologies made by the rugby club.
Marist Brothers Old Boys Rugby Club has been contacted for comment.
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