Cricklade today

Prior Park Preparatory School, Cricklade

It's thanks to the internet that many of these crimes of child abuse from the past are being catalogued; equally it's thanks to school websites today that one can see how the so-called educational institutions of the past have changed for the better.

So I'm pleased to be able to say that a glance at Prior Park Preparatory School today via its website at http://www.priorparkschools.co.uk/prior_2/index.php has quickly shown me that I would have every confidence in sending my children there.

It's still a Catholic school, but the Christian Brothers disappeared long ago like a bad dream. Searching for them on the school's website yields only 'No results found.'

In a way that's a shame. There were after all some decent Brothers, even if they were not strong enough to stand up and protest against the injustices. And even Brother B, twisted sadist though he was in many ways, did teach me things. The first French lesson that I gave as a teacher at Oundle School in 1974 was modelled on the pronunciation drills which I learnt at Cricklade.

Brother A: a kindly old man by contrast with some of his fellow-Brothers. Just a shame about his liking for the private parts of little boys in shorts

Brother A, as I told Archbishop Nichols, was a kindly old man who enjoyed playing us children recordings of Irish songs on a wind-up gramophone. It was just a pity about the absent-minded kiddy-fiddling, though that senile groping was hardly a crime compared with what some of the Christian Brothers got up to in other schools.

Cricklade, as we called it, is now a co-educational lay institution with well qualified staff and a curriculum which is designed to ensure that each child reaches his or her full potential. That's no more and no less than what the vast majority of schools claim for themselves today. But on a personal note it means a bit more to me than most school statements. Prior Park Preparatory School is a normal place which seems to produce happy and successful children. I wish it every success.

Cricklade children's terror

Brother B: a severely disturbed individual who should not have been allowed to run a school

My brother Justin, who attended Prior Park Preparatory School a few years after me was so outraged on reading the whitewashed obituary for Br B that he submitted his own commentary on it to the St Joseph's College Blackpool Association.

Justin conveys quite truthfully the atmosphere of fear in which pupils lived for much of the time. It would be wrong to say that this was constant; children by their nature are able to forget, or rather to bury in their subconscious, an unpleasant moment in their lives so that they are able to adapt to a new situation and mood. And of course there were happy moments at Cricklade.

However I cannot recall any happy moments associated with Brother B and his "cheerful and breezy manner" was an invented fiction as far as I am concerned. I do remember that he complained of his lumbago on one occasion, and the Brothers' whitewashed obituary does have some value in this respect. It is clear that he was already suffering from the spinal cancer which was to kill him in 1961. However his illness does not excuse the sadistic treatment which he meted out to pupils who broke his rules, whatever they were. Sick in body he certainly was, but he was also sick in mind.

Three boys - they must have been aged no more than 10 or 11 - ran away from the school. I was part of the escape plot, and to my shame I chickened out at the last moment. The boys got as far as Bath, I think, before being picked up by the police. The details are hazy in my memory. One of them may have been Trevor Ibbott.

Bishop Joseph Rudderham, Seventh Bishop of Clifton, 1949-1974

Picture credit http://www.cliftondiocese.com/

Prior Park Preparatory School is situated in the Diocese of Clifton, and as an establishment run by a Catholic order such as the Christian Brothers, it should have been properly monitored by the diocesan authorities. Bishop Joseph Rudderham can justifiably be held to account for failing to intervene and remove Br B from the school. It would be interesting to know whether the diocesan archives contain letters from concerned parents who withdrew their children.

Many parents, as devout Catholics, would never have doubted the Brothers' words. But in the two cases of boys savagely and publicly punished and humiliated for their incontinence, cited in my letter to Archbishop Nichols at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/easter-letter-to-archbishop.html the parents must surely have taken action. The two boys in question left the school and did not return.

But the memory of the mental torture that they must have endured will always remain with me, even more than the sound of the strap wielded by this "hearty sociable character" as Br B was mystifyingly described by his fellow-Brother Finian Rowe.

To force a ten-year-old boy who suffered from bed-wetting to put on a sailor-suit similar to the one pictured here, to parade him through a succession of classrooms in front of his fellow-pupils, and in each room to rain a series of blows with the strap on his reddening hands... the scene seems unbelievable. I'm still mystified as to the significance of the sailor suit. And where did it come from?

To call an assembly of the whole school to a classroom where the victim, a little boy who had soiled his underpants, was made to watch Br B displaying the filthy clothing to the child's fellow-pupils, and was then thrashed on the buttocks with the strap as he lay over a vaulting-horse... these were the actions of a seriously disturbed individual.

Yet they were both characterised by a sinister and calculated theatricality which had a logical aim. Br B wanted to impose a reign of terror in his school as viciously as any twisted prison warder, sadistic concentration camp guard or cowardly despot. He was neither brotherly nor Christian.

For the full commentary on Brother Dolan's saccharine and fictitious obituary click on http://www.stjosephsblackpool.com/obitdalycomment.htm

A brother on the Brothers

My brother Justin, who attended Prior Park Preparatory School, in Cricklade, Wiltshire, a few years after me, was so outraged on reading the whitewashed obituary for Br B, that he submitted his own commentary on it to the St Joseph's College Association.

You can read it by clicking here http://www.stjosephsblackpool.com/obitdalycomment.htm

A whitewash job on the man in black

The child abuse inflicted by Br B., Superior of Prior Park Preparatory School in Cricklade, Wiltshire, during the 1950s, was featured in my letter of 3 April 2010 to Archbishop Vincent Nichols at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/easter-letter-to-archbishop.html




















Above: Prior Park Preparatory School, Cricklade, Wiltshire

Victims of Brother B's savagery with the strap or the bare fist will be amazed to discover that he is remembered by fellow-Christian Brothers as "kind, generous and affable." The account of his "cheerful and breezy manner," of his sympathy in handling the sick, and of his much praised artistic and sensitive side which showed itself in his love of music and his keen ear for languages will all come as an eye-popping surprise to readers who suffered as 10-year-old children from his brutally sadistic, often humiliating, strappings and blows.

The inclusion of the obituary, written by Brother B.P. Dolan, and published by St Joseph's College Association is an ironic comment on what the Christian Brothers thought about one another.

If you want to read a really sickening ridiculous obituary click here http://www.stjosephsblackpool.com/obitdaly.htm

The Bishop's reply

Above: Coat of arms of Bishop Declan Lang, Bishop of Clifton

On 26 April 2010 12:21, Bishop of Clifton wrote:

Dear Michael

Thank you for your email. Like Archbishop Vincent Nichols I am sorry to hear of your past experiences and the deep wound that this must have caused. I have forwarded your email to our own Diocesan Safeguarding Officer. I am sure that she will be able to tell me the best way forward as to your suggestions. Meanwhile you may have heard from the Safeguarding Office for the Archdiocese of Westminster.

With my best wishes
Yours sincerely

Bishop of Clifton


26 April 2010

Dear Declan

Thank you for your prompt reply. I wondered whether we should have been on first name terms from the start, having seen that you were at Royal Holloway, or RHC as it was. I arrived in the first year of men, and extended my stay having changed my course and then embarked on postgrad work. My wife Anthea, who read English at RHC, thinks she remembers you. I wonder whether you came across the History Department's Henry Will, whom I knew as a former pupil of The Oratory School, where I was sent after Prior Park.

I look forward to being contacted by your Diocesan Safeguarding Officer. I have been in touch with Graham Wilmer, author of the book Conspiracy of Faith, who as you may know has been asked by Archbishop Nichols to look at how the Church can support the national commission idea that he has proposed (http://www.ctruk.org.uk/ ).

The internet age in which we live offers the Church every possibility of openness and transparency in dealing with this issue of historic clerical child abuse and the way in which it was systematically covered up or ignored in the past.

I'm delighted to note that thanks to the internet I can see on Prior Park Prep School's website how things have changed for the better, and how as a parent I would be happy to send my children there.

Best wishes

Michael

A letter to the Bishop of Clifton

The Right Reverend Declan Ronan Lang, 9th Bishop of Clifton.
Picture credit: http://www.cliftondiocese.com/

25 April 2010

Dear Bishop Lang

I have read with great interest the statement on child abuse issued by the Bishops of England and Wales on 22 April 2010.

I was inspired recently to write to Archbishop Nichols over Easter about the abuse which I suffered and witnessed at the hands of some brutal Christian Brothers while at Prior Park Preparatory School in the 1950s. My letter to Archbishop Nichols is attached, as is his sympathetic reply.

I am writing to you, partly because I have not as yet heard from the Safeguarding Officer mentioned by the Archbishop, and also because Cricklade lies within your diocese.

I noted particularly the sentences in the above Bishops' statement: "In our dioceses we will continue to make every effort, working with our safeguarding commissions, to identify any further steps we can take, especially concerning the care of those who have suffered abuse, including anyone yet to come forward with their account of their painful and wounded past. We are committed to continuing the work of safeguarding, and are determined to maintain openness and transparency, in close cooperation with the statutory authorities in our countries."

Since writing to Archbishop Nichols I have been investigating in greater depth some of the allegations against Christian Brothers at UK schools. I was dismayed to find even worse accounts than my own on sites such as http://www.stjosephsblackpool.com/ As for the Archbishop's own former school at St Mary's College, Crosby, there is plenty of material at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110624368948881 to show that some of the Christian Brothers there were as brutal as Cricklade's.

I was brought up in a deeply Catholic family. My great-uncle Sir Martin Melvin was well-known in Catholic circles in the 1930s as chairman of the Universe newspaper, and was a Knight of St Gregory. My father's family was related by marriage to Maisie Ward, the Catholic writer and publisher. You can imagine that the Christian Brothers were a most negative factor as far as developing my Catholic faith was concerned. There were obviously many decent and kindly men among them, but the brutal and twisted ones should not have been allowed to come in contact with children, and the others, if they had had any moral character at all, should have voiced their concerns to the diocesan authorities.

I would like to think that I can play a constructive part in helping the Catholic Church to restore its reputation as a trustworthy guardian of children's education. I am sure that one way of doing this is for dioceses to maintain the openness and transparency mentioned in the Bishops' statement by keeping records of allegations such as mine, making them publicly available if need be, and passing copies to the statutory authorities, including the police.

I have set up two websites at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=115726931786338&ref=ts partly to keep my thinking on this matter in good order. I hope I may use images such as the photos of yourself and Bishop Joseph Rudderham to illustrate my text.

Yours sincerely

Michael Downes

--
Heather Cottage
9 Exmouth Road
Budleigh Salterton
Devon EX9 6AF
Tel: +44 (0)1395 446407

A "powerful statement" from the Bishops of England Wales

Still no word from the Archbishop's Safeguarding Officer, who was supposed to contact me "after the Easter break." Meanwhile I read with interest the "powerful statement about child abuse" issued by the Bishops of England and Wales on 22 April 2010.

The penultimate paragraph offers some hope to those who are still seeking justice for the abuse that they suffered as children at Catholic schools:

"In our dioceses we will continue to make every effort, working with our safeguarding commissions, to identify any further steps we can take, especially concerning the care of those who have suffered abuse, including anyone yet to come forward with their account of their painful and wounded past."

I will therefore be writing to Archbishop Declan Lang, Bishop of Clifton (pictured), in whose diocese Prior Park Preparatory School is situated.

And I might just start to pester the Safeguarding Officer in the Archdiocese of Westminster.

The full text is below:

http://www.cliftondiocese.com/child-abuse-bishops-statement

22 April 2010

The Bishops of England and Wales have today (22 April) issued a powerful statement about child abuse. The important statement is to be read and made available in all parishes in England and Wales this weekend (24 and 25 April).

Child abuse in the Catholic Church has been such a focus of public attention recently, that we, the Bishops of England and Wales, wish to address this issue directly and unambiguously.

Catholics are members of a single universal body. These terrible crimes, and the inadequate response by some church leaders, grieve us all.

Our first thoughts are for all who have suffered from the horror of these crimes, which inflict such severe and lasting wounds. They are uppermost in our prayer. The distress we feel at what has happened is nothing in comparison with the suffering of those who have been abused.

The criminal offences committed by some priests and religious are a profound scandal. They bring deep shame to the whole church. But shame is not enough. The abuse of children is a grievous sin against God. Therefore we focus not on shame but on our sorrow for these sins. They are the personal sins of only a very few. But we are bound together in the Body of Christ and, therefore, their sins touch us all.

We express our heartfelt apology and deep sorrow to those who have suffered abuse, those who have felt ignored, disbelieved or betrayed. We ask their pardon, and the pardon of God for these terrible deeds done in our midst. There can be no excuses.

Furthermore, we recognise the failings of some Bishops and Religious leaders in handling these matters. These, too, are aspects of this tragedy which we deeply regret and for which we apologise. The procedures now in place in our countries highlight what should have been done straightaway in the past. Full cooperation with statutory bodies is essential.

Now, we believe, is a time for deep prayer of reparation and atonement. We invite Catholics in England and Wales to make the four Fridays in May 2010 special days of prayer. Even when we are lost for words, we can place ourselves in silent prayer. We invite Catholics on these days to come before the Blessed Sacrament in our parishes to pray to God for healing, forgiveness and a renewed dedication. We pray for all who have suffered abuse; for those who mishandled these matters and added to the suffering of those affected. From this prayer we do not exclude those who have committed these sins of abuse. They have a journey of repentance and atonement to make.

We pray also for Pope Benedict, whose wise and courageous leadership is so important for the Church at this time.

In our dioceses we will continue to make every effort, working with our safeguarding commissions, to identify any further steps we can take, especially concerning the care of those who have suffered abuse, including anyone yet to come forward with their account of their painful and wounded past. We are committed to continuing the work of safeguarding, and are determined to maintain openness and transparency, in close cooperation with the statutory authorities in our countries. We thank the thousands who give generously of their time and effort to the Church’s safeguarding work in our parishes and dioceses.

We commit ourselves afresh to the service of children, young people and the vulnerable in our communities. We have faith and hope in the future. The Catholic Church abounds in people, both laity, religious and clergy, of great dedication, energy and generosity who serve in parishes, schools, youth ventures and the care of elderly people. We also thank them. The Holy Spirit guides us to sorrow and repentance, to a firm determination to better ways, and to a renewal of love and generosity towards all in need

A blinkered Archbishop?

Above: St Mary's College, Crosby, alma mater of Archbishop Vincent Nicholas, educated by the Christian Brothers, about whom he personally has "no complaints."

Picture credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary's_College,_Crosby

On 5 April I received a sympathetic reply from Archbishop Vincent Nichols in reply to my allegations of physical and sexual abuse carried out by Christian Brothers at Prior Park Prep School, Cricklade, Wiltshire. Mgr Nichols wrote: "Incidentally, I was at a Christian Brothers' Grammar School. For me [sic] part, my experience is quite different to yours as I have no complaints about the education we received."

I thought I would investigate St Mary's, Crosby, the school in question. A Google search linking 'St Mary's Crosby' and 'abuse' produced the St Mary's College Crosby Abuse Witness archive at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110624368948881 Snap!

Description: A place for former students of St Mary's College Crosby to record their experiences of violence as a child at the hands of the Christian Brothers and other staff during the 1960's. Students of that era have no place to go to share their experiences, time is running out for many and people find it hard to believe that such violence could be openly and widely practised in full view of all adults employed at the school, without a single hand in defence of the children.

Open: All content is public.

The group has been started in March 2010 in reaction to the Pope's denials of knowledge of abuse at schools in Ireland and beyond. Share your own experiences and get in touch with other students from that time

Why am I doing this?
It's not because I want money (I have plenty)
It's not because I want an apology (empty words)
It's not because I want sympathy ( I am big enough to have put any damage caused behind me)

I WANT THSE ABUSES OUT IN THE OPEN
tjspooner@yahoo.co.nz
Tim Spooner
At 23 April 2010 the group lists Tim Spooner, Eddie Hulme and Dusty Smith, and now me!

Where's the real penance?

From The Times
April 22, 2010
Please forgive us: Catholic bishops’ deep sorrow for decades of child sex abuse
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent, and Richard Owen in Rome

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7104305.ece

The Catholic Church beats its breast without doing much in the way of real penance. As I told the Archbishop http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/easter-letter-to-archbishop.html I would like his archdiocese to open up an archive of material, copied to the police, going back to the 1950s or earlier. I don't know whether such an idea is practicable, but the Church could at least consider it.

Getting the details right

Above: Prior Park Preparatory School, Cricklade, Wiltshire, where headmaster Brother Cassian Joseph Daly presided over a brutal regime in the 1950s.

5 April 2010

Dear Archbishop Nichols

Thank you very much for your prompt reply, which I much appreciate in view of the busy time that this must be for you.

I would just like to point out that it was at the prep school in Cricklade where I had these bad experiences, when we were aged from 7-10. I then went on to Prior Park College in Bath, which was completely different and represented for me a wonderful release!

And of course I have to say that even of Cricklade I have some good memories.

I look forward to being contacted by your Safeguarding Officer.

With best wishes,

Michael Downes

The Archbishop's reply

5 April 2010

Dear Mr Downes,

Thank you for your emailed letter concerning your painful memories of Prior Park School. I am sorry that you have carried such a burden for so many years.

You ask that your letter be kept on file and that it be forwarded to the police.

After this Easter break I will ask our Safeguarding Officer to be in touch with you about these matters. He will know how best to proceed.

Incidentally, I was at a Christian Brothers' Grammar School. For me part, my experience is quite different to yours as I have no complaints about the education we received.

~With my best wishes to you,

+Vincent Nichols.

An Easter letter to the Archbishop

By email to: archbishop@rcdow.org.uk
Archbishop Vincent Nichols
Archbishop’s House
Ambrosden Avenue
London SW1P 1QJ


3 April 2010

Dear Archbishop Nichols

I have been reading in the press the sad record of the Catholic Church with regard to the abuse of children by a small number of clergy.

As you point out in your article submitted to The Times on 25 March 2010, "in the last forty years, less than half of 1% of Catholic priests in England and Wales (0.4%) have had allegations of child abuse made against them. Fewer have been found guilty."

I would like to draw your attention to some of the abuses which occurred in the 1950s at Prior Park Prep School in Cricklade, Wiltshire, run by the notorious Irish Christian Brothers.

I am writing now having read that most of the abuse suffered by children at the hands of priests occurred outside the UK, notably in Ireland and Germany, and that to an extent this country has remained "on the sidelines." This is not true.

I am now retired, but I think I may have gone into education as a teacher partly because I could not believe that it was right for children such as myself to have suffered in the way that we did at Cricklade.

The headmaster, Brother B, was a brutal sadist. More than 50 years on I still have memories which I am sure will shock you. Punishments inflicted by this monstrous man included:

- public beatings on the buttocks in front of the whole school administered to a boy who had a problem with faecal incontinence;

- publicly slapping a naked boy on the face in the showers;

- escorting from classroom to classroom in the school a boy who had problems with urinary incontinence. The child, aged 10 or 11 I suppose, was forced to wear a sailor suit - why I don't know! - and was beaten on the hands with the usual implement used by the Brothers, a heavy leather strap.

- slapping brutally and repeatedly in the face, in front of the whole school, a boy of the same age who had refused to shake hands with another boy after a fight.

I myself was given the strap by Brother B at the age of seven, shortly after joining the school, because I had neglected to bring a pencil to the exam room. At the time I did not know the meaning of the word 'exam'. I used the story in my retirement speech to colleagues to illustrate how I had thankfully seen progress in education during my lifetime, so I suppose the episode did have some value.

One abuse which I did not mention to my colleagues was that practised by one of the elderly staff at the school, and from which I and many others suffered. In fairness it was not of a brutal nature, involving simple senile groping. Brother A must have been in his 70s and had spent time in India. I remember him as quite a kindly man, actually, who used to play gramophone records to us boys. But I still have, strangely in my memory after all this time, the sensation of his scaly hands caressing my private parts. He did this quite openly in the presence of small groups of boys, almost absent-mindedly; we thought it was rather odd, but accepted it as an eccentricity rather than as a crime. Today, I know he would have been charged with assault. Looking back, I did wonder what he had got up to in India with the native children in his more active days.

Now I am writing this letter not out of any vituperative feeling, but simply to help put the record straight.

You maintain in your Times article that "every year since 2002 the Catholic Church in England and Wales has made public the exact number of allegations made within the Church, the number reported to the police, the action taken and the outcome."

I would like the contents of this letter to be kept on file and passed on to the police by your office. Those two Brothers died a long time ago of course, and so there is no way that they can be charged. I am not even thinking of mounting any legal suit against the Catholic Church. But it does seem to me that the Diocese of Clifton in which Cricklade fell was guilty of extreme neglect in not monitoring the behaviour of the Christian Brothers at the prep school.

You have courageously expressed publicly your shame at the offences against children carried out by Catholic priests. I would like to suggest that to convince the public of the Church's sincere regret in the matter of child abuse by its clergy, such accounts as mine be published in archives which you would make freely available to anyone. I would be interested to hear your reaction to such a suggestion. For all I know this has already been implemented.

I look forward to hearing from you, and I am sorry to be writing in this vein at such a sacred time for the Catholic Church.

Yours sincerely

Michael Downes

A Bad Friday for the Catholic Church

Above: Pope Benedict XVI

On Good Friday this year I was shocked to learn that the Pope's preacher, Father Cantalamessa, had compared criticism of the Catholic Church over child abuse to the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi8601084.stm

The next day I wrote to the Head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, to reveal the abuse which I and my fellow-pupils had suffered at the hands of the Irish Christian Brothers at their prep school in Cricklade, Wiltshire, during the early 1950s.

Archbishop Nichols had already caught my eye with his denunciation of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace in August 2009. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6736463.ece

I'll be using Facebook in tandem with this site to draw attention to the sins of some of his fellow-Catholics at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=115726931786338&ref=ts

Why Millstones?

Above: The logo of the Congregation of Christian Brothers

"Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Matthew 18: 1-6 King James Version.

So this blog's name has a suitable Scriptural basis.

Most of the child abusers who've inspired Millstones are dead, so Jesus Christ's suggested punishment for them comes too late.

The name also suggests the metaphorical millstones which continue to hang around the necks of abused people today, thanks to the brutal regime inflicted by the Irish Christian Brothers in the schools that they ran. Much of the physical and sexual abuse suffered by these people as children continues to haunt them, more than half a century later.

The crimes of Blessed Edmund Rice's disgraced Congregation of Christian Brothers have been well publicised in Canada, the USA, Australia, and of course Ireland, where it was founded. But there has been no specific focus on the UK schools where the Brothers imposed their rule of fear.

Edmund Rice may have been a saintly man in many ways, and many of the Brothers were kind and good teachers. But too many of them, unbalanced and brutal as they were, should never have been allowed to come into contact with children. For that, the Roman Catholic Church is deeply guilty.