Cleric covered up allegations of child abuse against priests

ENGLAND’S most senior Catholic clergyman covered up allegations of child abuse against his priests, including JRR Tolkien’s son, an inquiry has heard.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, now the Archbishop of Westminster, was said to have been prepared to strike out abuse claims, even if he knew them to be genuine.

He was privately made aware of at least five separate allegations against Fr John Tolkien, son of the author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but preferred to pay off an accuser rather than risk embarrassing the Church.

Cardinal Nichols was today due to give evidence in person to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which is investigating how a number of key institutions in Britain handled claims.

However, it was announced at the end of proceedings yesterday that he had been “taken unwell” during a Remembrance service and would be unable to attend. Fr Tolkien, who died in 2003, aged 85, had been accused by a Birmingham man, Christopher Carrie, of having twice sexually abused him in November 1956, when he was aged 11.

The inquiry heard that Cardinal Nichols, who was Archbishop of Birmingham between 2000 and 2009, was also made aware of a victim who said he was abused by Fr Tolkien in 1970.

In a statement read to the hearing, Cardinal Nichols apologised for “errors of judgment”, and claimed he had felt “a sense of duty to protect other Catholics from these horrors”.

“We followed our instincts in trusting these priests, who were in fact criminals,” he said.