MONKS COVERED UP SCHOOL SEX ABUSE
Catholic staff hid years of rapes at elite boarding schools to protect reputation of church, report finds
THE ‘ appalling sexual abuse’ of scores of children as young as seven at two leading Catholic schools was covered up to protect the church’s reputation, a devastating report found yesterday.
Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire and Downside School in Somerset ‘prioritised monks and their own reputations’ while children were subjected to depraved abuse over four decades.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said the schools – which both charge fees in excess of £30,000 a year – turned a blind eye to abuse by monks, teachers and even cleaners.
It said there was a ‘culture of acceptance of abusive behaviour’ at the prestigious schools, whose glittering alumni include politicians, aristocrats and actors. Shockingly, its report into the scandal found that ‘ systemic child protection and safeguarding challenges’ remain at both schools today.
One teacher at Ampleforth, Dara De Cogan, was jailed last year for grooming and sexually abusing a schoolgirl between 2005 and 2010. The report found:
Ten paedophiles at the schools, mostly monks, have been convicted or cautioned for sex attacks or child porn offences, but the true scale of abuse is likely ‘considerably higher’;
Victims described regular sadistic and sexual beatings, likening Ampleforth to Nazi prisoner of war camp Colditz Castle;
at Ampleforth were openly abused outdoors and indoors during lessons and communal activities;
At Downside, former headmaster Dom Leo Maidlow Davis burned wheelbarrows full of documents in 2012 after the abuse emerged;
When complaints were made, perpetrators were transferred to other parishes where they continued to prey on children unchecked;
One former pupil killed himself in 2013 after his allegations of rape and bullying were not acted upon;
A priest convicted of sexually assaulting a sleeping 13-year- old
‘Wide spectrum of physical abuse’
went on to work at Oxford University despite a teaching ban.
The report, by Britain’s biggest public inquiry, uncovered allegations stretching back to the 1960s encompassing ‘a wide spectrum of physical abuse, much of which had sadistic and sexual overtones’.
Lawyers for victims estimate that dozens of children were preyed upon by monks.
Many allegations were never investigated because ‘secretive, evasive and suspicious’ church officials didn’t want to alert the police or social services, opting to ‘keep it quiet at all costs’. The report found: ‘Both Ampleforth and Downside prioritised the monks and their own reputations over the protection of children, manoeuvring monks away from the schools in order to avoid scandal.’
Ampleforth College is often referred to as the ‘Catholic Eton’, having educated many elite figures throughout its 200 year history. Former pupils include Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, sculptor Antony Gormley and actors Rupert Everett and James Norton.
One alleged offender at the school, which charges fees of £35,000 a year, abused at least 11 children aged between eight and 12 over a ‘sustained period of time’, but died before police could investigate.
The inquiry, led by Professor Alexis Jay, produced the report following weeks of evidence hearings last year, which included personal accounts from victims. Most victims were boys, but girls were also assaulted.
‘The blatant openness of these activities demonstrates there was a culture of acceptance of abusive behaviour,’ the report said.
At Downside, which has fees of £32,000, paedophile monk Nicholas White Whit was permitted itt d to t stay t on after ft one of his pupils accused him of sexual abuse. He was jailed in 2012 for five years for abusing boys.
Other paedophiles were allowed to remain at Ampleforth even after prison time for child abuse.
In 2016 and 2017, the former abbot of Downside, Aidan Bellenger, sent two letters to then headmaster Dom Leo Maidlow Davis, highlighting how four suspected paedophiles remained at the school. But this information was not passed on to the local authority safeguarding lead.
In 2001, a safeguarding report about clerical child abuse recommended all sexual abuse allegations within the church must be referred to police. But the schools only paid ‘lip service’ to the report.
Abbot Timothy Wright, who led Ampleforth between 1997 and 2005, refused to draw up a child protection policy saying: ‘There is a policy of no policy for monks’. In her report,
Professor P f Jay said: ‘Even after new procedures were introduced in 2001, when monks gave the appearance of cooperation and trust, their approach could be summarised as a “tell them nothing” attitude.’
The report concluded that neither school has established a redress scheme for victims.
Christopher Jamison, Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation, which is associated with both schools, said: ‘The report highlights how flawed many of our past responses have been.’
Ampleforth School offered a ‘heartfelt apology’ and said in a statement: ‘We have publicly accepted responsibility for past failings on many occasions, and the Ampleforth of today has never been afraid to learn difficult lessons.’ A spokesman for Downside also apologised and said it would ‘ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated’.