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.