Location, location.... Sensation!

A statue of St Benedict, founder of the Benedictine Order. It ought to be weeping tears of shame

Just over a year ago I was expressing my frustration at the seeming uselessness of the oddly-named Conference of Religious when faced with cases of child abuse by religious orders like the Christian Brothers. Click on http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/conference-of-religious.html to see the detail.

At the time I was struck by the location of the Conference of Religious. "Judging by its postcode, the Conference of Religious is housed in premises which are close to St Benedict's School, Ealing," I wrote. "Ironically, at this time the school is the subject of an enquiry by Lord Carlile of Berriew QC into clerical child sexual abuse at this establishment, which is run by the religious order of Benedictines."

My observation provoked a comment from one of my readers "It won't surprise you in the slightest to learn that the President of the Conference of the Religious is Martin Shipperlee, the Abbot of Ealing," wrote Jonathan West. The Abbey of Benedictine monks is of course close to St Benedict's School.

I was flattered to learn that Jonathan West has dipped into my blog. He's taken a businesslike and measured approach in his own, entitled Confessions of a skeptic, which has since 2009 specialised in examining abuses committed by members of a respected centuries-old religious order of the Catholic Church.

His blog, at http://scepticalthoughts.blogspot.com/ "is largely concerned with highlighting the child sex abuse which has occurred at Ealing Abbey and St. Benedict's School," he writes. "I have two aims: to try and ensure that the child protection policies of the Abbey and school are brought up to the highest possible standard, and to provide support to any victims of abuse at St. Benedict's or elsewhere."

Well, Jonathan West will be busy for the foreseeable future. A headline in the Guardian newspaper 'Fugitive Catholic priest urged to turn himself in' was one of many similar ones which appeared in the British press along with the news that the Carlile report has just been published. Click on http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/nov/09/monks-schoool-abuse-st-benedict-ealing?newsfeed=true to read the story.

It appears that the priest in question, Fr Laurence Soper is a former Abbot of Ealing Abbey who is being sought in connection with disclosures of alleged and proven abuse. Fr Soper is thought to be in hiding at an Italian monastery, having skipped bail in this country.

The Carlile report is apparently a devastating critique of the way in which St Benedict's School, Ealing, had been run, allowing "abuse, mostly – but not exclusively – as a result of the activities of the monastic community."

Click on Jonathan West's website at http://scepticalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/11/sins-of-fathers.html to see more.

Is the Catholic Church about to meet its Waterloo?

Above: The coat of arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth, where there is some concern about a recent High Court ruling

I imagine that my schoolfriend Harry whom I mention at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/seeing-brothers-in-court.html will be even keener since the announcement, two days after he contacted me, of a landmark decision by the judge involved in the above High Court case.

Mr Justice Alistair MacDuff's ruling, in what has become known as the 'Baldwin case', that Roman Catholic priests are equivalent to employees has made headlines in the world press.

The case involved a 47-year-old woman who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by the Rev. Wilfred Baldwin when she was living in a Catholic children's home, The Firs, in Waterlooville, Hampshire. She was pursuing a claim for damages against the Catholic Church. Fr Baldwin died in 2006.

The Church has always argued that it is not "vicariously liable" for the actions of priests. In a three-day hearing in July before the judge, it argued that priests are not employees. It claimed there was no contract of employment, that priests paid self-employed taxes and that the positions were never advertised.

This was the first time the argument had been heard in open court. On Tuesday 8 November 2011 Mr Justice MacDuff rejected it. In his ruling he said that Father Wilfred Baldwin, who is accused of abuse, was appointed "by and on behalf of the defendants", the Portsmouth diocese. "He was so appointed in order to do their work, to undertake the ministry on behalf of the defendants to fulfil that role... He was directed into the community with that full authority and was given free reign to act as representative of the church," the ruling read. "He had immense power handed to him by the defendants. It was they who appointed him to the position of trust which (if the allegations be proved) he so abused."

The decision has been welcomed by those who believe that it could pave the way for victims of sexual abuse to win damages from the Church.

The Diocese of Portsmouth has issued a statement on its website at http://www.portsmouthdiocese.org.uk/docs/The-Diocese-Fr-Wilf-Baldwin.pdf
Bishop Crispian Hollis gives, as its primary reason for refuting the claimant's allegations, the assertion that at the time she was resident at The Firs, "Fr Baldwin was based at the other end of the Diocese and had no connection with the children’s home." It is naturally hoping to appeal against the ruling.

Seeing the Brothers in Court

Blessed Antonio Rosmini, founder of a Catholic religious order which, like the Irish Christian Brothers, has been tainted with allegations of sexual abuse of children
It's been months since I posted news of further sins against children committed by Christian Brothers. I'd almost accepted that someone in the Vatican had been invoking Blessed Edmund Rice and praying hard for me to shut up or even die.

Yes, for a day or so back in June 2011 I was appalled as I read the story of the paedophile hypocrite and member of the Rosminian Order Fr Kit Cunningham http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100093079/fr-kit-cunninghams-paedophile-past-heads-should-roll-after-the-rosminian-orders-disgraceful-cover-up/

It was tempting to write to Fr Myers, Provincial of the Rosminian Order in England with my own story of abuse by the Christian Brothers. I'd have enjoyed telling him that he should be comforted by the thought that his Order was not alone in being accused of years of sexual misdemeanours against children.

But somehow those bitter and sarcastic thoughts were short-lived. It was a busy time in the garden. I was preoccupied with trying to overcome the side-effects of an operation for prostate cancer. And I was enjoying getting to know my grandchildren.

I even failed to mention on the Millstones site an email that I received around that time, totally out of the blue, from an ex-pupil at Prior Park Preparatory School, Cricklade, with whom I'd been friendly. I remembered him well, but had hardly thought of him as one who'd had a particularly hard time.

How wrong I was! He hadn't been humiliatingly dressed up in a sailor suit and strapped in front of us like the poor boy I described at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/cricklade-childrens-daly-terror.html He'd certainly never been made to lie over a vaulting horse while Brother B, witnessed by the whole school, thrashed him on the buttocks for the sin of soiling his pants, as I mention at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/so-i-didnt-imagine-horrors-of-cricklade.html





















Above: Brother A. His eyes are closed, as if in prayer

Yet his experience of the Christian Brothers seems to have affected him even more deeply than me. Harry - not his real name - spent three years at Cricklade from 1954 until he moved on, like me, to Prior Park College, Bath. "I remember the abuse I suffered both violent and sexual," he wrote. "I remember Brother A and in particular Brother B. They, and other Brothers, ruined my life."

Harry told me his story in successive emails over the last six months.

Some years ago he had consulted specialist solicitors - he is a retired solicitor himself - but was advised that there was no action he could take. He'd also got in touch with the Irish Christian Brothers, but all they could offer by way of counselling was a meeting with a Christian Brother in Cheshire, hundreds of miles from his home town.

"I also contacted the Catholic Church, but I found them evasive and slow to deal with me," he explained. "I am now an Anglican, although I did for many years keep up with the Catholic Church."

Yes, keeping up with the Church is something that most 'cradle Catholics' find only natural, given the indoctrination that children are subjected to by priests and parents from an early age. 















Prior Park Preparatory School, Cricklade, scene of miseries suffered by many Catholic children at the hands of the Christian Brothers

But back to Cricklade and our schoolboy memories... It turns out that Harry is the third ex-pupil of my acquaintance who experienced the senile gropings of the school's so-called 'Saint.'

"I also remember Brother A," he told me. "I went to Prior Park Preparatory School when I was eight and was very tearful at being separated from my mother. Brother A took me to his bed that night, but I remember nothing after that relative to this incident, although I can recall on later dates Brother A putting his hands down my trousers and fumbling about."

Harry mentioned another incident involving the same Christian Brother which gives a further twist to his character.

"I also recall an occasion when Brother A bent a boy [...] over a chair and struck him with a riding crop interspersing each stroke with prayers. The sound of the strokes were audible throughout the school and he had pronounced weals on his backside."

I have to say that I find this story hard to believe, since I found the venerable Brother to be of the most gentle disposition, however fond he was of groping little boys. Harry concurred with this. "Normally Brother A was kindly, telling stories of having been in India and the incident [...] was out of character."

Yet the riding crop...? It's true that Brother A had charmed my parents, especially my mother, with his tales of horsemanship, so perhaps I got off fairly lightly with just a bit of fondling from the old man.

What has prompted me to come back to the Millstones blog is a recent email from Harry dated 6 November 2011 in which he informed me of a case currently before the High Court in which damages are being sought from the Roman Catholic Church.

"Some years ago," he wrote, "I was advised that if I took proceedings, I would stand no reasonable prospect of success by a firm of solicitors, Panone and Partners, but I think that the position may be different now with the Ryan Report and the Residential Institutions Redress Board (in Ireland). I am told that the solicitor dealing with the case in the High Court is Ms. Tracey Emmott of Emmott Snell & Co."

Harry told me that he was proposing to contact this firm of solicitors with details of our correspondence and of this Millstones blog, and suggesting that I might wish to contact Ms Emmott. He himself would be willing to enter into a Conditional Fee Agreement with the firm, and suspected that there would not be any need for a payment up front in order to seek advice. He had sought advice from his own Anglican church and had found a more helpful response than from the Catholic authorities that he'd consulted. "The local Rector is supportive of my pursuing a claim, as he feels that I should be entitled to redress."

Harry is keen to contact other ex-Cricklade pupils who have suffered at the hands of the Christian Brothers, and I would be more than happy to provide his email address if he is willing for me to do this.

Completing the trinity

So many important things come in threes. Like the Trinity, which I learnt about as a good Catholic boy reading his catechism some 60 years ago.

So decided to post a third item today as it follows on from what I've just written at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/criminal-investigation.html about my contact with the police.

On 10 January this year I received a phone call from a Bro Gibson in Dublin. It turned out that he had been investigating the case which I had brought to the attention of Archbishop Nichols almost a year ago. All I could do was to repeat my story of what had happened at the Christian Brothers' Prep School in Cricklade, to which Bro Gibson responded with a natural sympathy.

He emailed me the same day the following letter:

Dear Mr Downes,

Further to our conversation this afternoon, I just want you to know that I rang Wiltshire Police, informing them of my motive for contacting them: to report your allegation of abuse. They took down my details and told me that they would add them to the file they had already compiled in the light of your own reporting to them. They said that they may contact me in the future, depending on the progress of their investigation.

I want to express my deep regret for the pain and suffering you experienced while at Prior Park and which you reported to the Christian Brothers. It makes for very sad reading.

Should you wish to contact me furher [sic], I have already given you my contact
details. In the meantime, may I wish you every blessing and good wishes.

With kind regards


David Gibson (Brother)

I replied two days later, with an invitation:

Dear Brother Gibson

Thank you for your phone call and for your kind and sympathetic email expressing your regret over my case. It is much appreciated.

The ideal of the Christian Brothers is a noble one, and it is a shame that the Congregation's reputation has been harmed by the actions of a few psychologically disturbed individuals.

Recognition that wrong was done in the past to innocent children, and transparency in acknowledging these cases of clerical child abuse, have been long overdue. This new attitude must surely help to cast the Catholic Church in a more positive light.

For the past year I have tried to investigate such cases involving Christian Brothers in UK schools. As I am sure you know, many websites have been started with a similar theme. Often the tone of such contributions is shockingly abusive, and unjustified, in postings by both accusers of the Christian Brothers, and by their defenders.

I set up a site called Millstones, on Facebook. I hope that it is more measured in tone. If you would like to join the group I would be delighted. Just type Millstones into the search box, and request to join. I believe you are on Facebook yourself.

Thank you again for your cooperation with Wiltshire Police, and for your kind phone call.

Yours sincerely

Michael
Bro Gibson, who, it seems is quite senior in the hierarchy of Christian Brothers, has had much experience of the history of allegations levelled at the Congregation, as I found when I clicked on sites such as http://www.alliancesupport.org/news/archives/000108.html

This was his reply, emailed to me the same day:

Dear Michael,

Thank you for your email and for your measured reflection on the sorry situation of child abuse in the Catholic Church. Certainly, child abuse raises many painful memories and feelings, and it is understandable when sometimes these feelings are expressed in rather raw ways. However, I hope that eventually some form of healing will lead people to a place where they can begin to integrate the pain and suffering into a life that becomes one that is compassionate and forgiving. But it takes time.

I will look at your Millstones and look forward to seeing how you present your message.

With kind regards


David Gibson
I am sorry that Bro Gibson has not taken up my invitation to join the Millstones site. I don't think that he would have caused the Congregation of Christian Brothers to lose face or admit guilt by appearing on it along with victims of child abuse. Rather, it would have shown that he and the Catholic Church are now brave enough to embrace the ranks of the accusers and demonstrate not only a new transparency in these matters for the Church but also a bold solidarity with the victims. I think it might have been quite a smart PR move.

Ah well, it's back to the garden again.

A criminal investigation?

The photo which I published at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/almost-60-years-on-mystery-solved.html has evidently brought back memories of the ghastly schooldays dominated by the cruelty and violence of certain Christian Brothers at Prior Park Preparatory School in Cricklade, Wiltshire.

It's also reminded me of how last October I decided to contact the police about the sexual assault which I mentioned to Archbishop Vincent Nichols in my letter emailed to him at Easter 2010, posted at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/easter-letter-to-archbishop.html

Well, I call it sexual assault just because I suppose that's how it would be described today, although the senile fumbling of the Christian Brother involved hardly ranks with the brutal rapes inflicted on some of their charges, in Ireland for example.

I suppose I simply wanted to record this little detail as part of the larger jigsaw of child abuse for which this and other religious orders have been responsible. For future historians of religion, or of education, for example.

It seemed that my complaint had to be addressed to Wiltshire Police, since it was in that county where the alleged assult took place. The police, to my surprise, were pleasantly cooperative. After all, they are supposed to take allegations of historic child abuse seriously, but it was a long time ago. And the perpetrators, including headmaster Bro B whom I mentioned for the savage beatings that he inflicted on ten-year-old children, have been dead for a long time.

I wouldn't have blamed the police if they'd told me that they had better things to do than waste time on my age-old case. Yet at the back of my mind was the thought that my account might help to corroborate those of other victims if they felt brave or mad enough to bring them to light.
I was interviewed at my local police station in Exmouth on 13 October 2010 by DC Mike Laybourne. To my surprise, I found it quite an upsetting experience. Mike was extremely sympathetic. He tells me that he has liaised with Detective Sergeant David Martin, of Wiltshire Police at Hampton Park West, Melksham, Wilts. Tel: 0845 408 7000.

And I suppose, or vaguely hope, that what I told him has been recorded in a file somewhere. Maybe, one day, if I'm feeling suitably outraged by yet another revelation of the cruelty suffered by children at the hands of religious orders like the Christian Brothers, I'll contact DS Martin, just to make sure that my little piece of the jigsaw is in the right place.

Almost 60 years on, a mystery solved

It's been some time since I posted anything on this site, which I suppose means that my mind has been taken up with happier activities. Like DIY, house re-decoration and so on. Plus there's my work as volunteer press officer for the local museum, which has been thoroughly absorbing.

But a fellow-victim of the Christian Brothers at Prior Park Prep School, Cricklade, emailed me yesterday with the answer to a tiny puzzle which featured in a previous post at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/cricklade-childrens-daly-terror.html

There I described how the weirdly sadistic headmaster Bro B had punished a boy with a bedwetting problem by dressing him up in a sailor suit and parading him from classroom to classroom with a good strapping in front of each class. Well I'd been wondering what kind of weirdo would have gone out and hired a sailor suit specially for this occasion.

It turns out that on the Friends Reunited site at http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/album.page/album?albumKey=304597&albumType=SchoolAlbum&member_key=0&mediaKey=0&commentPage=0 you can see the above photo taken of a pageant staged at Cricklade in 1952 to mark the accession of Princess Elizabeth to the Throne. The photo was uploaded on to the site by ex-pupil Michael Cross. And in it I see at least ten little boys wearing sailor suits, as well as someone dressed as Britannia.

So, mystery solved. Br B obviously had a storeroom of costumes somewhere in the school which he kept for years after the event. I wonder who else was subjected to a humiliating ritual which involved dressing up to satisfy this twisted man's fantasies.