Why did Welby fail to alert police over paedophile?
The Archbishop of Canterbury should face disciplinary action over his role in a sexual abuse scandal, lawyers said last night.
Justin Welby failed to alert police when a priest was accused of sexually assaulting a worshipper – despite knowing that he was a convicted paedophile.
Canon John Roberts was later jailed for offences against three people, one of them the accuser who had gone to Mr Welby.
The Daily Mail can today reveal that Mr Welby, then dean of Liverpool, rejected the worshipper’s claims, and even banned him from the cathedral for being ‘threatening’ in 2011. he instead accepted Roberts’ denials.
Roberts, 87, who had a 1989 conviction for indecent assault, is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence.
Richard Scorer, of Slater and Gordon, which represented one of the victims, said: ‘Justin Welby’s actions in this case were unacceptable... If the church is going to honour its promises then Welby should now face disciplinary action.’
Questioned at Roberts’s trial, Mr Welby said he had reported the initial allegation to the diocesan safeguarding adviser. But he admitted he had not recommended disciplinary action, saying his conclusion and that of colleagues was ‘it was just one person’s word against another’.
The archbishop has apologised for the way the Church of england dealt with allegations of sexual abuse in the past, and backed calls for the mandatory reporting of claims of abuse of children and vulnerable adults.
Canon Roberts ministered from 1980 at St Peter’s Church in Woolton. he was convicted of indecently assaulting a choirboy in 1989 and fined. Reinstated within a fortnight, he went on to work at Liverpool Cathedral.
A spokesman for Lambeth Palace said: ‘The archbishop has said that had he known the full detail of Roberts’s 1989 conviction, he would have handled it differently. The archbishop has apologised for his response.’
The Diocese of Liverpool said it recognised its ‘failings’ in the case. Sources insisted the 2011 allegations were not passed to police in line with the wishes of the accuser.