Monks hid ‘appalling abuse of young pupils’

Monks should be stripped of control at two leading Benedictine schools after sexual abuse was covered up for 40 years, a report has found.

Leaders at Ampleforth in North Yorkshire and Downside in Somerset hid allegations of ‘‘appalling’’ abuse against pupils as young as seven to protect the Catholic Church’s reputation.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) yesterday published a damning report on The English Benedictine Congregation, which has 10 monasteries.

Ampleforth College and Downside School were two schools linked to the monasteries, run at times by ‘‘secretive, evasive and suspicious’’ Church officials who avoided reporting misconduct to police and social services.

The inquiry found that sexual abuse spanning four decades at both schools was likely to be ‘‘considerably’’ more widespread than previously thought. Both must implement a ‘‘strict separation’’ between the governance of the abbey and the school, if safeguarding arrangements are to be free from ‘‘often conflicting priorities’’, it concluded.

Allegations stretching back to the 1960s encompassed ‘‘a wide spectrum of physical abuse, much of which had sadistic and sexual overtones’’, the report said. Ten individuals linked to the schools, mainly monks, have been cautioned or convicted.

‘‘The true scale of the abuse however is likely to be considerably higher,’’ the investigation, led by Professor Alexis Jay, found. ‘‘Safeguarding children was less important than the reputation of the Church and the well-being of the abusive monks,’’ she said. She added that even after new procedures were introduced in 2001, when monks ‘‘gave the appearance of co-operation and trust’’, their approach ‘‘could be summarised as a ‘tell them nothing’ attitude’’.

Yesterday, both Ampleforth and Downside published apologies to the victims of abuse. One alleged offender at Ampleforth abused at least 11 children aged between 8 and 12 over a ‘‘sustained period of time’’, but died before police could investigate. – Telegraph Group