Litany of failure

Over the five years that pedophile priest Robert Waddington was inviting victims from Manchester to his retirement home in York, the Archbishop of York David Hope was assuring other victims in Australia that Waddington's health was 'very precarious indeed'.

Waddington himself described his home in retirement in letters as "The Waverley Hotel" and wrote that the house was 'in full swing' in 1997 and 'overfull with visitors'.

In an exhaustive investigation into allegations against Waddington, Judge Sally Cahill has reported that from 1956 until 2013, almost 20 people including several of Waddington's victims, reported allegations to church officials in Australia and Britain.

Over those years no church official or cleric reported to police in Britain.

Judge Cahill's report on her 'Inquiry into the Church of England's response to child abuse allegations' has not been released publicly but has been circulated to Waddington's victims and church officials in Australia and Britain.

The Report makes clear that if anyone in the Church of England was equipped to detect the crimes alleged against at least nine children and one adult over more than five decades by the former Dean of Manchester Robert Waddington, the Archbishop of York David Hope, was arguably in the best position to do so.

Archbishop Hope, now Lord Hope of Thornes, presided over the writing of the church's child protection policy "Protecting All God's Children" and had contributed to the earlier policy "Children First".

Yet when allegations were made against Waddington in 1999, 2003 and 2004, Archbishop Hope breached child protection policies 18 times, the Report found.

In 1999, Archbishop Hope breached the child protection policy by interviewing an alleged offender and failing to realise this could contaminate evidence, failing to make a record of his conversations, failing to consider the current risk to children and failing to consider suspending Waddington's permission to conduct church services.

After the interview, Archbishop Hope wrote to the Bishop of North Queensland telling him 'this man has recently undergone surgery and post-surgical chemo and radiotherapy for cancer in the throat which has left him severely debilitated'.

His letter persuaded the Australian complainant to drop his civil action but he wrote back that if Waddington had been a younger man in better health "I would have brought him to justice even if it had taken me the rest of my life to do so."

Once the civil action was dropped, Archbishop Hope wrote to Waddington to let him know and assured him of his 'continuing good wishes and prayers'.

After examining Waddington's health records and letters from 1999 to 2004, the Inquiry concluded Waddington was in fact healthy and fit enough to be investigated through those years.

A second set of allegations emerged in 2003, this time more recent allegations from two sisters of a former Manchester Cathedral choirboy.

Archbishop Hope again breached the child protection policy, committing five breaches of policy.

Judge Cahill found he failed to take any action at all, failed to make any record of his involvement, failed to consult his child protection advisor, failed to consider the current risk to children and failed to consider suspending Waddington's permission to conduct church services.

The Report found the victim, Eli Ward, who gave evidence to the Inquiry, may have been encouraged or enabled to speak out in 2003 if a police investigation had been launched.

In 2004 when more allegations were raised, this time by a former teacher employed by Waddington in Australia, Archbishop Hope finally suspended Waddington's permission to conduct church services.

However, he again breached child protection policies.

Archbishop Hope sent statements of complaint from two victims directly to Waddington in advance of an interview by a Diocesan staff member that should not have been carried out; failed to establish the current risk to children and made no records of his actions.

When the Australian investigation was dropped due to 'insufficient evidence', Archbishop Hope phoned Waddington who wrote back saying he was doing some entertaining and would be able to do so 'with a much more cheerful countenance'.

In evidence to the Inquiry, Archbishop Hope said he told every member of the clergy the details of any complaint against them in what he perceived to be a process of 'natural justice'.

But the Inquiry found that the only thing Archbishop Hope could hope to achieve by speaking to Robert Waddington himself was 'possible contamination of the case against him and prejudice to a police investigation'.

Judge Cahill found that the failures by church staff and clergy from 1999-2004 in the Dioceses of Manchester and York, including by Archbishop Hope meant that new child protection policies would have made no improvement to how the matter was handled.

"Our conclusion in this case is that irrespective of the policies in force there was a systemic failure: appropriate referrals would not have taken place in any of the years 1999, 2003 and 2004 because the decision making process was in the hands of those not qualified or sufficiently experienced in child protection to make those decisions, specifically Lord Hope, [and child protection advisors] Ray Morris, Alan Roberts and Graham Cooper," the Report found.

Child protection advisor to the Archbishop of York, Ray Morris, who contributed to the 2002 York Diocese child protection policy and knew the church should not 'investigate itself', carried out an interview with Waddington about criminal allegations at Archbishop Hope's request.

Waddington continued conducting church services at York Minster until March 2003. He died in 2007 with his reputation intact.

In a historical survey of Waddington's career, the Inquiry found 17 people including some victim children, relatives of victim children and some church staff reported Waddington's crimes or suspicions of his crimes to church officials between 1956 and 2013.

None of these reports to church officials was ever referred to police.

Retired Manchester police officer Janet Ramsden gave evidence that she resigned from the York Diocese Child Protection Support Group because its child protection policies and practices in 2003-04 were so 'dangerous' and 'out of touch with reality'.

The former child protection investigator said her professional views were ignored and she 'felt it was untenable for myself to continue as a police officer and be part of some mismanagement of a case and hence I left the group'.

Several alleged victims of Waddington dating from the 1950s until the 1990s, and the aunt of one alleged victim who suicided in 1989, gave evidence to the Inquiry.

Judge Cahill said there had been no real opportunity for collusion between the witnesses and there was no information that led the Inquiry to doubt the truth of the accounts of the alleged victims. She suggested more victims may yet come forward following publication of her Report.

Former London choirboy, Ray Munn, who now lives in Australia, was a choirboy in the parish of Bethnal Green in the mid-1950s.

He told the Inquiry that he and another boy were abused between 1953 and 1956.

Allegations were reported by the other boy's father, to the vicar of St John's Bethnal Green which precipitated Waddington, a young curate, leaving by ship for Australia.

TheBishop of Stepney gave Waddington a reference stating he was 'a devoted priest' with 'a special gift for dealing with boys'.

Waddington worked at a school in Warwick in southern Queensland, returned briefly to England and returned to Australia as headmaster of St Barnabas School in Ravenshoe, North Queensland, from 1961-1970, despite having no educational qualifications.

In 1964, Bim Atkinson, 9, was sent from a remote cattle station in far north Queensland to St Barnabas Boarding School where he gave evidence that he was brutally raped multiple times from 1964 to 1968.

A fellow student, Mark McClintock gave evidence that he was abused between 1968 and 1970.

A former teacher at the school, identified in the Report only by the code PG, also reported to the Inquiry that as a young man Waddington had committed sexual offences against him.

On his return to England in 1971 Waddington became a residentiary canon at Carlisle Cathedral and the bishop's advisor for education.

The aunt of a boy known only by his nickname 'Tweet' who was allegedly abused in Carlisle by Waddington, committed suicide in 1989.

Waddington was promoted to Dean of Manchester in 1984 where he was a governor on several school boards, including Chetham's Music School.

In the 1980s, Manchester Cathedral master of the choir Stuart Beer reported his concerns about the then Dean's relationship with Eli Ward, to the cathedral organist and choir director Gordon Stuart, who reported to the Cathedral Chapter.

No report was made to police. Waddington forced Eli Ward to resign from the choir.

The York Report found that more than three former Manchester Cathedral choirboys, Eli Ward, John Livesley, Ian palmer and others not named, were invited by Waddington to his house in York and that contact continued with them from 1993 when he retired until 2005 when he left York.

Judge Cahill found the men's evidence displayed 'a strikingly similarity in the overall nature of the alleged abuse' which she viewed as 'potentially deeply emotionally abusive as well as sexually abusive'.

The true extent of Waddington's criminality may never be documented. Thus far ten men have identified themselves as victims but most of them know there are many more victims who have not reported their abuse.

Questions must now be asked – If Lord Hope was the best-placed cleric to bring Waddington's crimes to light – how many other cases are there in the Church of England where incompetence or deliberate failure to carry out church policy on child protection has allowed child sex offenders in the church to escape detection or punishment, leaving more children at risk?

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has already ordered a review of the personnel files of every Anglican clergyman since 1950, diocese by diocese.

This review will also consider changes to the seal of the confessional, the tradition by which priests are bound to keep confessions secret, even if those confessions amount to unprosecuted criminal offences.

In Australia, the Anglican Church passed a new canon in July this year releasing priests from the requirement to keep confessions secret if they involve sexual abuse of children, except if the priest is reasonably satisfied the person has already reported to police.

In other positive signs, the Manchester Archbishop David Walker has praised the victims of Waddington for their courage in bringing Waddington's offences to light.

Judge Cahill made eight formal recommendations in her report, primarily removing child protection responsibilities from individual Dioceses.

Instead, she has recommended that the Church of England should approach child protection on a national basis, applying national policies uniformly in all dioceses, covering both current and historic cases and holding all records centrally.

If accepted by the national synod, a newly-formed National Child Protection service would have a full-time professional safeguarding officer whose decisions would be independent of church leaders.

In addition, dioceses would work together if cases involve victims or offenders in more than one diocese.

Child protection groups in dioceses must also have clear, written objectives, keep full and accurate reports and consist only of qualified and experienced members, Judge Cahill recommended.

In addition, clergy with pastoral oversight of an alleged offender would not also be responsible for dealing with allegations against the same person.

The first English and Australian victims who exposed Waddington's offending in the media in 2013 have both asked for Archbishop Hope to be deposed from Holy Orders and to be removed from the House of Lords.

But a spokesman for the House of Lords Standards Commissioner, Owen Williams, said primary legislation would be required to remove a peerage.

"Once a peerage has been conferred it cannot be removed except by primary legislation," he said.

"The only other circumstances where a Peer can lose his right to sit in the House is if he is imprisoned for a period of more than one year or made bankrupt."

An added complication is that Lord Hope has been on leave since November 2012 and is therefore not subject to the Code of Conduct for Members of the House.

Eli Ward has welcomed moves by Archbishop Sentamu and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby who have agreed to consider Mr Ward's suggestion to amend the 1800-year-old seal of the confessional, to better protect children.

"Abuse is heavily documented in the media, more than it ever has been, and none of us seem to be shocked any more by the revelations being unearthed at almost every tier of society," he said.

"What is not clear to the public is how extremely well protected and secret the whole subject is."

"Whether it is a mentality to protect and cover up, lose paper work or have bungled police investigations, there is no denying that it is all extremely odd," Mr Ward said.

"The reporting to the police by members of society in positions where you would expect them to do the right thing is simply not happening."