A FORMER Bishop of Swansea & Brecon has appeared at Swansea Crown Court, charged with sexual offences, the Church in Wales reports. The Rt Revd Anthony Pierce, 84, pleaded guilty to five counts of indecent assault on a male child under the age of 16. The offences date from the period between 1985 and 1990, when he was a parish priest in West Cross, Swansea.
Bishop Pierce, who was Bishop of Swansea & Brecon from 1999 until 2008, was remanded on bail. He is expected to be sentenced on 7 March.
The allegations came to light in 2023 when the survivor made a disclosure to a Church in Wales safeguarding officer. The disclosure was passed to the police for further investigation. The Church in Wales Disciplinary Tribunal will consider further action once sentencing has taken place.
The Church in Wales issued a statement on Friday, acknowledging the bravery of the survivor in coming forward, and thanking the police and other statutory partners for their “careful work” on the case.
“The Church in Wales is appalled at the offences which have been revealed in this case and expresses its deepest sympathy with the victim for the abuse they have suffered,” the statement said. “It is a cause of the most profound shame that a priest in the Church in Wales should have been convicted of such shocking crimes. Our prayers are with the survivor and with all victims of abuse, whose welfare must always be at the heart of our work. We hope that the manner with which the disclosure was handled when it came to light in 2023 will give confidence that the Church is serious about dealing firmly and decisively with any such cases.”
According to the statement, an internal investigation undertaken after the disclosure suggests that, in 1993, a small number of members of the Church in Wales had been aware of “a further allegation against Mr Pierce”, but that this was not shared with the police until 2010. The Church in Wales Safeguarding Committee has now commissioned an independent external review of the Church in Wales’s handling of this second allegation.
“The review will also consider how safeguarding allegations are handled in the Church’s current systems for the appointment of Archdeacons and Bishops and whether any changes to these processes are necessary,” the statement continues. The terms of reference for this review will be published shortly on the Church in Wales website.
“The Church in Wales is determined to demonstrate that it is a safe place, and that anyone coming forward will have their concerns or disclosures taken seriously, treated with compassion, and taken forward according to the highest current standards. If our people and processes have failed victims and survivors of abuse in the past, we intend to take responsibility for that fact and to fully apply the lessons which have been learned.
“There is no place for any form of abuse in the Church in Wales. We give the highest priority to the care and protection of children and vulnerable people in our communities. To this end we regularly review our safeguarding procedures and provide extensive training to staff and volunteers.”