Proving innocence

SIR – In her letter (April 9), Gabrielle Higgins of Chichester diocese says that “the Church has no option but to investigate” a claim of abuse against a deceased member of the clergy.

The disagreement in the case of the late Bishop George Bell is about the methods used to ‘“investigate” a single claim against him of historic sex abuse.

The Church must not be allowed to act as judge and jury in such instances, but should seek an independent investigation before making a judgment and settling a claim. This patently did not happen in the case of Bishop Bell, and is the cause of continuing public concern.

Rather, the Church acted like the Star Chamber of yesteryear, looking only (and apparently superficially) into the claimant’s version of events. No case in defence of George Bell by those who knew him or who could have spoken on his behalf has been sought, and no legal representative of the family has yet been permitted to present his side of the matter.

In a private letter on the question of the lack of evidence against the late Bishop, Ms Higgins wrote that in his papers “nothing was found that corroborated the accusation and nothing was found that undermined it”. In other words, the Church’s conclusion of its own internal investigation appears to have been based on the fact that Bell never stated that he had not abused anyone.

Dr Ruth Hildebrandt Grayson Sheffield, South Yorkshire