The Church of England allegedly allowed nearly 400 church clergy members and other workers to remain employed despite being charged and convicted of child sexual abuse.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) released a report that found that England’s official church allowed employees and clergy members who had committed child sexual abuse to simply ask forgiveness in order to continue working.

The investigation looked at incidents that occurred from the 1940s through 2018 and found 390 people who were convicted of pedophilia, but allowed to keep their jobs.

The report said that the church appeared to deem the act of forgiveness “as the appropriate response to any admission of wrongdoing.”

Church of England Fails to Protect Children

One example the IICSA provided was that of Timothy Storey, who was convicted of three counts of rape and one count of assault by penetration after he faced trial. After serving a 15-year sentence, he will be placed on license for public safety for four years, which is similar to probation in the U.S.

Storey, now age 39, was found to be grooming several girls while he worked as a counselor at a religious-themed summer camp. He exchanged text messages with the girls, including sexual images commonly referred to as sexting.

One girl said Storey took her to a concert, served her alcohol, and she missed her train home. Storey purportedly planned the entire evening to ensure he was alone with her at his home where he sexually assaulted her that night.

Another survivor of Storey’s abuse said she trusted him back in 2008 and 2009 when he was her church’s youth leader. She said the scars of enduring such sexual abuse will last her entire lifetime.

During Storey’s 2016 sentencing, Judge Philip Katz QC had strong words for the Church of England’s Diocese of London.

“It seems to me that there was a wholesale failure by those responsible at that time for safeguarding, to understand whose interests they should have been safeguarding,” said Katz.

The judge also said the church attempted to falsely blame the police for not putting a halt to Storey’s sexual abusiveness, but in reality, the judge said the police deserved praise for its diligence and sensitivity to the investigation.

The IICSA’s observation of the way the church handled the allegations against Storey said that the pedophile was allowed to keep his job working with kids because he expressed “remorse for everything he had done wrong.”

Throughout the investigation, the IICSA also found that some church leaders strongly encouraged survivors of sexual assault to forgive their perpetrators. The combination of pressuring victims to forgive and the apparent lack of holding the perpetrator accountable led to some victims having to return to environments where they could encounter the offender again.

In fact, the report further found that admissions of child sexual assault during confessions were uncommon, but victims alleged that authorities were never contacted by the church regarding any allegations of abuse.  Some victims felt they were perceived as lying about the abuse even though allegations of Storey sexually assaulting girls go back to 2007 when he worked for a missionary organization as youth worker with the Diocese of London. His victims were reportedly as young as 13 years old.

When Storey confided to a senior vicar that he had had sexual relations with a 16-year-old girl, the senior vicar told other clergy members that Storey “was basically a good man who could be an effective priest.”

Former Bishop Peter Ball also retained the church’s backing after he was accused of sexually abusing young men in 2015. Lord George Carey was Archbishop of Canterbury at the time and refused to believe the allegations and continued to vocally support Ball, according to the IICSA report.

IICSA wrote, “Perpetrators were defended by their peers, who also sought to reintegrate them into Church life without consideration of the welfare or protection of children and vulnerable adults.”

Sexual Abuse in Religious Organizations

After the Roman Catholic sexual abuse scandal revealed decades of allegations that were covered up by the church, other religions and youth organizations began to take a closer look at what was happening within their own ranks.

Now that class action lawsuits and multi-million-dollar class action settlements have bankrupted several Catholic dioceses in the U.S., the staggering number of victims who suffered abuse committed by people they revered and trusted is alarming. Holding the perpetrators and the religious organizations who enabled them accountable may be possible through court action.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.