Church abuse review uncovers cases here

Friday 29 May 2015

Seven cases of abuse within the Methodist Church community in the Channel Islands have been highlighted after a three-year internal investigation.

The church has undertaken the investigation into abuse within the church itself and the wider Methodist community – by reaching out to people within the church it has found that there were 1,885 issues of concern about abuse across the UK since 1950.

Of those cases, 48 were described as “urgent”, or requiring “immediate and significant” action.

The review – undertaken by three independent safeguarding consultants at a cost of £262,000 – has sifted through more than 2,000 responses.

They have found seven cases of concern in the Channel Islands after all 13 island ministers as well as seven supernumaries and one layperson responded to the call for evidence.

It is not clear whether any of the Channel Island cases were under the “urgent” or “immediate and significant” categories.

The review was published yesterday, and was dedicated to the survivors and victims of abuse with the hope that the findings will make the church a safer place in the future and improve safeguarding for vulnerable people.

It found that few of the respondents had been abused themselves, but that many had concerns about people they knew, or that survivors of abuse had asked someone to respond on their behalf.

The report highlighted anonymised case studies from throughout the UK including:

• A man in his 30s who disclosed that he had been abused by a church youth worker. The alleged abuser, now a lay pastor, is being investigated by the police.
• A woman now in her 50s revealed she had been abused by a minister’s husband. The abuse was reported at the time, but it’s not clear if any action was taken.
• A minister who was convicted of abuse and sent to prison was allowed to retire on “compassionate grounds”. Four further abuse cases have now been unearthed, and the police are reviewing two of them.
• Another minister convicted and imprisoned for abuse was allowed to resign following suspension, despite the fact that a risk assessment found he saw no need to change and categorised him as at “a very high risk of reoffending”.

In a statement accompanying the release of the report, the Secretary of the Methodist Conference and General Secretary the Revd Dr Martyn Atkins has issued a full and unreserved apology to survivors and victims of abuse.

He said: "On behalf of the Methodist Church in Britain I want to express an unreserved apology for the failure of its current and earlier processes fully to protect children, young people and adults from physical and sexual abuse inflicted by some ministers in Full Connexion and members of the Methodist Church.

“That abuse has been inflicted by some Methodists on children, young people and adults is and will remain a deep source of grief and shame to the Church.

"We have not always listened properly to those abused or cared for them, and this is deeply regrettable. In respect of these things we have, as a Christian Church, clearly failed to live in ways that glorify God and honour Christ.”