THE diocese of Chichester insisted this week that a BBC investigation that questioned the accuracy of a report by Lady Butler-Sloss on the handling of the cases of two priests who were the subject of child-abuse allegations (News, 27 May) did “not undermine” the report’s credibility.
A report on BBC News last week said that the Bishop of Lewes, the Rt Revd Wallace Benn, had told Lady Butler-Sloss that one of the priests, the Revd Roy Cotton, had been issued permission to officiate in 1999 so that he could celebrate the eucharist in the nursing home in which he lived. The BBC said that it had discovered that Mr Cotton was not admitted to a nursing home until September 2003.
The diocese said in a statement that “some of the information that has come forward since the publication of the report is not only ‘new’, but indeed draws into question one of the factual claims in the EBS [Elizabeth Butler-Sloss] report, namely, that Roy Cotton was resident in a nursing home in May 2001.”
The statement said that it now appeared that Mr Cotton “did not formally move to a nursing home until 2003”, and that “there were periods between 1999 and 2003 where he was sufficiently healthy to be able to minister in parishes.” The diocese had “verified a number of dates”, it said.
“This correction does not, in our view, undermine the credibility of the Butler-Sloss report. Rather, it only underscores one of that report’s conclusions, which was that the failure to remove Roy Cotton’s permission to officiate in May 2001, when his conviction for indecent assault in 1954 came to light, was a serious error. The diocese has already apologised in full for that error, but wishes to acknowledge that this new information demonstrates even more strongly how important it is to get these matters right.”
Speaking on BBC News on Tuesday, the Archdeacon of Lewes and Hastings, the Ven. Philip Jones, said that Bishop Benn, who is on sabbatical, “maintained consistently” that he understood the information that he had given Lady Butler-Sloss to be accurate. “The main thrust of the report relates to safeguarding practice, and the recommendations she has made are full and entirely to the point.”
The report by Lady Butler-Sloss concluded that, across the diocese, there had been “a lack of understanding of the seriousness of historic child abuse”. It said that senior clergy, including bishops, “were slow to act on the information available to them and to assess the potential risk to children in the diocese”. It also said that there had been “inadequate communication” between senior clergy and child-protection advisers, and “seriously inadequate record-keeping”.
Question of the week: Do you have confidence in the Church of England’s child-protection arrangements?