Updated Tuesday evening and again Wednesday noon
The BBC has published a File on Four radio programme (43 minutes long), to be aired at 8pm this evening on Radio 4
A priest assessed as posing a risk of “significant harm” to children and young people was given a pay-off. What does this tell us about safeguarding in the Church of England?
The BBC News website reports it thus: Priest thought to pose risk to children is paid off. But I recommend listening to the entire radio programme.
The Church of England has released Statements regarding BBC File on Four Blackburn Cathedral case
Statement from the Church of England
“The case highlighted on the BBC today is complicated and very difficult for everyone involved particularly those who came forward. A number of allegations were made about the Canon over a number of years and a risk assessment was conducted according to the House of Bishops 2017 safeguarding guidance. In the event, none of the allegations resulted either in a conviction in the criminal courts, or in a determination of misconduct in the independent Church courts through the Clergy Discipline Measure.
“He was removed from office on health grounds by the former Bishop of Blackburn, in 2021, under the Church Dignitaries (Retirement) Measure 1949 , but the Canon then brought a claim in the High Court for judicial review of that decision and payment was made in settlement of that claim. The Church of England is currently reviewing the disciplinary procedure for members of clergy (Clergy Discipline Measure), as recommended by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, IICSA and a review of the risk assessment regulations and guidance is under way.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Justin Welby and Stephen Cottrell, said:
“We are truly sorry when survivors are let down by the Church. We were both made aware of this case, including the concerning background and the challenges caused by statutory and Church processes ending with no further action.
“We absolutely believe that there is no place in ministry for people who are a risk or pose a risk to others and continue to work to ensure that our systems are made ever stronger and more robust.
“This case highlights the complexity of our structures and processes and is just one example of why we asked Professor Alexis Jay, the former chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, to provide options and recommendations for how further independence of safeguarding within the Church of England might be achieved. This work is now being taken forward.
“As the Bishop of Blackburn told the BBC, the Church has made huge strides in safeguarding in the past 10 years particularly in listening to the voices of survivors and victims. However, this case, which goes back many years, shows that we are still working to get our processes right and we must learn from the mistakes of the past.”
This is also being reported in other media:
Updates
Blackburn Cathedral published Public Statement by the Trustees of Blackburn Cathedral
On Tuesday 13th August 2024, BBC News reported details of an investigation by Radio 4’s File on Four programme, to be broadcast at 8.00pm on Tuesday 13th August, into historic safeguarding concerns in the Church of England involving a senior member of clergy at Blackburn Cathedral.
The Cathedral recognises and fully accepts that there were failures, apologises for them, and has learned important lessons. In October 2023 The Cathedral Chapter made a statement about the lessons learned from this case and it can be found here.
Since that time the Cathedral has worked and continues to work assiduously to improve its safeguarding culture, policies and procedures to ensure everyone is, and feels, safe.
Regretfully, the Cathedral cannot undo the pain and hurt of the past, and our thoughts are with those survivors whose trauma may now be re-lived as a result of this programme.
The programme gave details about legitimate safeguarding concerns that were raised repeatedly over a twenty-five-year period and highlighted the systemic nature of the institutional failures within the Church of England that prevented Blackburn Cathedral from dealing effectively with the concerns.
There remains work to be done for these institutional hurdles to be overcome.
The programme disclosed that a sum of money was paid to the individual by the Church of England. No Blackburn Cathedral funds were involved in this payment.
Peter Howell-Jones
Dean of BlackburnFinding support
If you or anyone you are in contact with are affected by this report and want to talk to someone independently, please call the Safe Spaces helpline on 0300 303 1056 or visit safespacesenglandandwales.org.uk.Alternatively, you may wish to contact the Diocese of Blackburn Safeguarding Team: catherine.smith@blackburn.anglican.org or the Diocesan Safeguarding Team in your area or the National Safeguarding Team at safeguarding@churchofengland.org
Church Times CDM system failed us, says Blackburn diocese, after paying off canon ‘who posed risk’
It appears that the options available to senior figures in the Church to make children safe are:
Encourage a diocese to leak to the media.
Pay an alleged abuser a 6 figure sum
If you didn’t know the Church of England is in a state of safeguarding collapse at national level…
You do now.
The press release is a gem too…,
I could have sworn that the noble archbishops and their council have spent the time since the publication of the Jay report working out how not accept her recommendations, including organising ‘consultations’ AKA less qualified people being asked to redo the work very slowly .
And as for X North- what great strides have been made in Safeguarding over the last 10 years and which victim did they listen to and for how many seconds?
And which bishop was most vociferous in his criticism of the Jay report at Synod? Yes, you’ve guessed it – it was the Bishop of Blackburn. Funny that!
Absolutely, Susanna. It’s a truly appalling situation for those who have been harmed, and those who have tried to pursue justice, and have been failed. I listened to the podcast and have read the things in the public domain about the case. Many will no doubt disagree with me, but I have some sympathy for Julian Henderson. His actions have been criticised, and here I acknowledge I’m no expert in child protection. But looking at it from the perspective of a cynical clerical and legal person who always applies an hermeneutic of suspicion to anything done by a senior cleric… Read more »
I might have felt marginally happier had the organisation made an open statement about it all BEFORE it appeared on this morning’s news, rather than one explaining their actions afterwards.
By odd coincidence, I was only saying to someone last night, in relation to the church’s social standing generally, that credibility requires integrity.
I am deeply grateful to Rowena Pailing for speaking out about her experience at Blackburn Cathedral, and to the BBC team for making this story known. Whilst I have no knowledge of this case beyond what has been presented today, having tried to raise a (completely separate) safeguarding concern in the past with Blackburn Diocese, I can say it was the worst experience of my life. I did so as a lay church officeholder left under no illusions from safeguarding training that we had a duty to report behaviour observed in a church context which concerned us. As it was,… Read more »
The statement from Blackburn Cathedral is even worse. It describes the case as “historic”, as if it happened hundreds of years ago. It expresses concern for those who may be traumatised as a result of the BBC programme (not Blackburns fault at all, then). It then claims the quarter of a million pounds did not come from Blackburn Cathedral Funds, as if that makes it ok.
My local parish is planning a stewardship campaign. No chance!
Agreed, utterly appalling statement from the Dean and Trustees of Blackburn Cathedral. A textbook demonstration of how to make a bad situation worse. En masse resignations of all those involved would seem an appropriate way forward but is never going to happen in the Church of England where safeguarding, as regards the treatment of victims and survivors, would be called a joke, except that it is so unfunny. I have spoken to three seasoned (ie approaching retirement) safeguarding professionals, each of whom has worked in that field throughout their careers. Completely unprompted, each of them (based on their combined 120… Read more »
At the moment all my giving is donations to the local food bank. I prefer giving goods (largely food) rather than cash. I would only give cash these days to a fund with restricted uses.
“goes back many years” – and also goes back not many years at all, in terms of the pay-out stage. This case can’t be consigned to the ‘this is historic abuse and we’ve all moved on’ category.
Helen, the 2 Archbishops claim that the Church has made huge strides in listening to survivors and victims over the last 10 years. This is utterly untrue, the very opposite of the truth. Many, probably most, victims of Church-related abuse believe the current leadership of the Church (Archbishops, Bishops, NST, AC) actually treat victims & survivors worse in 2024 than they have done at any point in the last 35 years. To give but one example: the current external co-Chair of the ‘Response Group’ gets her information from the likes of the NST, AC & Joanne. Yet the external co-chair… Read more »
This is just another example of the way that the Church is more concerned about their dwindling reputation than they are about the victims of abuse. Come on Justin – you must work harder and faster to get your processes right. Why didn’t you sack the Canon 20 years ago instead of letting him continue.
A number of reports state that the Canon alleged homophobia about his enforced retirement. Is his sexuality the reason why he was protected and why one of our poorest dioceses is now £240,000 out of pocket?
From the sound of it he was subject to homophobia and this provided him with a smokescreen to hide behind. He wasn’t “protected” because of his sexuality so much as homophobes muddying the water.
Well, it is now clear that this was funded by ‘the Church of England’ not the diocese (Public Statement by the Trustees of Blackburn Cathedral). Presumably that applies too to the inevitable legal costs of setting it all up. So, who is ‘the Church of England’ here? From which pot did the money come, and who authorised the use of that pot?
Helen,
Agreed, an important question is who were ALL the signatories required to approve this payment?
For example I assume that even Justin can’t just sign off £250k without the support of others?
The dwindling number of us who actually contribute to funding the Church deserve to be told who approved this payment, and on what basis.
If The C of E cannot be open about that, I imagine a significant number of people may decide to be less than open with their wallets.
Do we know if Andrew Hindley was made Canon emeritus on his retirement? If not he presumably loses the right to call himself ‘Canon’. It may be that this was part of the NDA.
Crockfords does not list him as canon emeritus
Somewhat academic as he could always style himself Canon (retired).
The Archbishops and their Council refused to follow Professor Jay’s recommendations. They didn’t even want her to speak at synod.and yet they are quoting her in their defence. What a disgrace. Justin and Stephen don’t deserve their titles. I know people trying to hold them to account. Keep up that challenge please. 🙏
North portrays himself as the clean ‘new broom’ who is learning lessons. However, it is worth recalling that as well as being a suffragan bishop in the diocese since 2015, he also spent some nine months as acting Dean of the Cathedral (June 16 to Mar 17) when this safeguarding debacle was in full swing.
Also weren’t there some challenges at the time to the way that this ‘internal’ candidate was appointed as Diocesan Bishop of Blackburn? Given what appears to be a very large, very recent, extremely damaging cover up, presumably agreed to by many current senior staff of the Diocese, shouldn’t this whole process of selection be back under the spotlight? It shows the real weakness of internal appointments to Diocesan. An external appointment as Diocesan would have been far freer to ask the difficult questions of their predecessors. I feel desperately sorry for all survivors of church abuse, several of whom I… Read more »
This story jogged my memory of a Church Times report about an ad clerum from the three Blackburn bishops and archdeacons in 2019 in response to IICSA. The Church Times quotes the senior Blackburn clergy: “The Church should be the conscience of the nation and yet as the report shows, again and again we have placed the reputation of the institution above the needs of the vulnerable. “In addition, when the contemporary church fails to respond properly to allegations from the past, this becomes a form of re-abuse, adding a fresh layer of hurt and harm to those whose lives… Read more »
By way of contrast, Dr Bernard Randall has, in effect, been branded as a safeguarding risk in Derby diocese for a sermon he gave on the Church of England’s teaching on marriage in a C of E chapel in a school with a C of E ethos. His attempts to obtain justice, including by bringing a CDM complaint against the Bishop of Derby, have been frustrated and he is now reportedly bringing judicial review proceedings against the President of Tribunals, Dame Sarah Asplin, in which he is seeking disclosure of the designated officer’s report to the president (following his section… Read more »
This sounds remarkably similar to the trouble at Oxford; how on earth can anybody be considered a ‘safeguarding risk’ for simply stating a legitimate opinion which is based on the historic understanding of both scripture and humanity? Maybe the CEEC people have a valid point after all. On the basis of this ban, none of us who still accept the ‘majority’ view of sexuality should even be allowed inside a church – this is the tail wagging the dog to an extreme, and is no way true equality or inclusiveness. To me, an outsider, it looks very much like pure,… Read more »
While I endorse the recommendation above to listen to the entire 45 minute radio programme, some readers may prefer to watch the ‘5 minute version’ from the BBC 10 o’clock news item from around 05:45 to 11:00 on Tuesday 13 August https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0021ylr/bbc-news-at-ten-13082024 As the Church demonstrates day by day and week by week, its leadership (Archbishops, Bishops, AC, NST etc) simply lacks the will to address the devastating impact its failings today have on victims & survivors in 2024. This has never been an issue about historic failures. Victims & survivors have never, over the last 40+ years, been treated… Read more »
The local BBC News programme has much more including an interview with the Dean, but this will only be available till around 1800 on Wed 14 August.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00220qs/north-west-tonight-evening-news-13082024
Very sensibly the Dean has no confidence in the current Church of England Leadership as regards Safeguarding.
This interview with the Dean of Blackburn is well worth watching, and I hope it will be preserved by someone for viewing beyond this evening.
It will hopefully appear on the House of Survivors site within the next day.
An extraordinary mess of the kind which could be cleaned up easily if all CofE clergy, irrespective of office, were made employees and provided with clear contracts. Then people could simply be fired, rather than the church having to go through an absolute farce of a process to remove the mad, bad, or dangerous from post.
Here here!
I couldn’t agree more. It would also give the many clergy who are not engaged in wrongdoing proper protection against the endemic bullying that goes on across the denomination and access to proper recourse when they are wronged.
We know that the CDM is not fit for purpose. There is a pattern of senior clerics getting suspended with the world at large, and victims, going “what just happened there ?”. Pilavachi, Fletcher, Broomfield and no one can quite see what process was used, how decisions were made and how justice can possibly have been served. Certainly not what an outsider might expect from a well designed CDM process. It is never clear whether the sanction is central or Diocesan, whether it is even an “official” CofE process. The reviews into Fletcher (31:8), Pilavachi (Scolding), Titus (31:8), Scripture Union… Read more »
Am I the only person who is getting very irritated by the (presumably) legally required formula of cant words, “We are terribly sorry, and lessons have been learned”?, which we’re all too familiar with following disastrous failures, whether they be church or social services? All too patently, they are simply just that – a required formula. As Eliza Doolittle said, (and later quoted by Derek Prince), “I’m sick of words.”
If this man was such a menace, why did the police and courts do nothing about him? How can we legally remove someone from office for inappropriate behaviour if the courts don’t back us up?
In reply to ‘Virtual Vicar’: The police carried out no fewer that five investigations but, as the BBC report states, the first two (in 1991 and 2000) “were dropped after the alleged victims and the canon denied the allegations.” In the other three cases (in 2001, 2006 and 2018) the report states: “Police took no further action… In each case Canon Hindley denied the allegations.” The report adds: “Lancashire Police says it assessed all available information and ‘where evidence was available investigations were undertaken and advice sought from the Crown Prosecution Service’ but that ‘this did not result in any… Read more »
I believe the out of time ones were earlier, and that the 2020 ones were on the basis of evidential problems and the likelihood of discharging the burden of proof, one issue as Sir Mark Hedley said being the age of the young man concerned in one of the allegations.
Evidence.
Numerous independent Lessons Learned Reviews (LLRs) as well as IICSA make the connection between the Church of England’s attitudes and policies on LGBT+ people and the Church’s inability to respond well in safeguarding cases. (For clarity, I do not endorse Hindley’s alleged homophobia defence which to me sounds entirely opportunistic.) Key LLRs are Gibb on Peter Ball (2017), Cooper on Stowe and Maids Moreton (dramatized by the BBC in 2023) (2022), Robson on Alan Griffin (2022). All these cases, it should be remembered, resulted in loss of life. I have been raising this point in Synod since 2018 (joined more recently by… Read more »
The programme ends on what is to me an unsatisfactory and unhelpful note in that it has Rowena Pailing saying: “Bishops have an awful lot of power, if they want to do something, they can do it. So I think that for many of those senior clergy, when they said that they couldn’t do it, what it meant was that they weren’t brave enough to do it.” My immediate response was to ask myself what are those powers that the senior clergy are said to have had but not used in this case. The answer is certainly “there aren’t any”.… Read more »