Church of England Facing 3,000 complaints Of Child Abuse, Forced To Pay Millions
The complaints include the case of former bishop Peter Ball
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The Church of England has received over 3,000 complaints about child abuse and may be forced to pay millions in compensation to victims according to reports.
The complaints are almost all from the alleged treatment of children, young people or vulnerable adults.
According to one recent compensation payment in an unproven child abuse case of a long-dead Bishop of Chichester George Bell, mounted to £15,000 - matching that sum to every complaint would cost the church almost £50million.
The complaints include the case of former bishop Peter Ball who was jailed for 32 months in 2015 for sex abuse against boys over a period of 30 years.
DMail reports: An independent inquiry last summer said the Church had failed to protect boys and then concealed evidence of Ball’s crimes. Most recently, Archbishop Welby has been criticised for his handling of the George Bell case.
Of the 3,300 sex abuse complaints the Synod will hear about nearly one in five, 18 per cent, involved ‘church officers’, likely to be mainly clergy. Other complaints are likely to have been made against lay individuals or churchgoers.
The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Peter Hancock, said in documents prepared for the Synod that during 2016 dioceses did 338 ‘risk assessments’ after complaints against individuals. Of those assessed, 19 were clergy. The Church made 867 ‘safeguarding agreements’ with individuals – drawn up to ensure someone assessed as a risk is kept away from possible victims of abuse and is supervised.
