Bishop failed to act in case of serial abuser, claims independent report
A serving bishop could be sacked by church authorities for failing to act on a disclosure of sexual abuse carried out by another bishop, a review has concluded.
A Betrayal of Trust, an independent report into how the Church of England handled allegations concerning the late Hubert Victor Whitsey, former Bishop of Chester, was published on Thursday.
The long-awaited report concluded that Bishop Whitsey used his position in the church to commit "appalling" acts of sexual abuse against at least 18 children, young people and vulnerable adults between 1966 and 1981.
It also detailed instances of the bishop paying “hush money” to his victims in a bid, they claimed, to buy their silence.
However, the report also implicated the Rt Revd Glyn Webster, the current Bishop of Beverley, alleging that he not only failed to act when one of Whitsey’s victims – referred to as M1 – told him of the abuse, but that he also encouraged him to “leave the issue alone”.
The report’s authors also wrote that: “M1 was keen to stress GW did not tell him not to go to the police”.
In a press conference following the publication of the report, the Lead Safeguarding Bishop, Jonathan Gibbs, revealed the allegations are the subject of an ongoing investigation on behalf of the Church’s National Safeguarding Team, adding: “We will be acting as swiftly as possible”.
Asked in general what he thought an appropriate punishment would be for a serving bishop who failed to act appropriately regarding disclosures of sexual abuse, Bishop Gibbs responded: “That is a very serious matter”.
When assessed under the terms of the Clergy Disciplinary Measure (CDM), he added “there are a number of possibilities” for punishment, including “prohibition of that person from office”.
M1, who claims he was abused by Whitsey from the age of 14 to 18, also told the report the last time he saw him, Whitsey wrote him a cheque for £250 or £350 and told him that this money was to buy music, but M1 thought at the time that it was “hush money”.
Bishop Glyn Webster told the report – authored by the lawyer, His Hon Judge David Pearl, and independent safeguarding consultant and review adviser, Kate Wood – that he had not received any disclosure of sexual abuse by M1.
However the report concluded: “On the evidence we have seen; and having spoken with all of the people involved, we are satisfied on a balance of probabilities that there was a conversation about Whitsey at this informal dinner party, that M1 said he had been abused by Whitsey, and that Bishop Glyn Webster told him, in effect, to move on.”
The report concluded that the findings will make "deeply uncomfortable reading for the church" and that the victims' suffering was "clearly made worse by the poor response of church officers at different times when they had the courage to come forward."
They concluded that Bishop Whitsey “used his position in the church to abuse both prospective ordinands, and children and young persons, many of whom were particularly vulnerable as they were experiencing personal family difficulties, such as the death or departure of a parent”.
The current Bishop of Chester, the Rt Revd Mark Tanner, has expressed "horror and shame" at the findings of the report, and Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, has also offered an apology.
The publication of A Betrayal of Trust comes just days after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) published a damning report into the Church of England’s “culture” which enabled abusers to evade punishment.
A spokesman for the Diocese of York said that the Bishop of Beverley is not making any comment on the report.
