Welby admits Bishop Bell abuse investigation was ‘very painful’

THE Archbishop of Canterbury has admitted that investigating abuse allegations made against Bishop George Bell had been a “very, very painful process” as the church prepared to publish its findings.

Ahead of what it is hoped will be the end to a long and bitter battle between the Church of England and the family and supporters of one of its most revered bishops, the Most Rev Justin Welby said the tackling of sex abuse cases had been the Church’s “greatest failure” since the Second World War. The Archbishop was personally accused of attempting to smear the name of the former Bishop of Chichester, who died in 1958, by accusing him of being a paedophile when there was “no credible evidence” against him.

An independent review of the handling of the case by Lord Carlile, released in 2017, found that Bishop Bell had been besmirched by the Church two years earlier when officials released a statement formally apologising over allegations of abuse made by a woman who was now in her 70s. Today the Church is due to release the findings of its National Safeguarding Team into “fresh information” that came to light after the review was published.

The Archbishop has written to Bishop Bell’s surviving relative ahead of the release of the report, The Daily Telegraph understands.

Sussex Police dropped an investigation into the “fresh information” in March last year, two months after it came to light.

Talking about the case to The Spectator ahead of the publication of the report, the Archbishop said: “It has been a very, very painful process. Not least because Bishop Bell was – is – one of my great heroes. Probably the greatest failure of the Cofe since the Second World War has been our failure to deal adequately with disclosures of abuse. When I came into this role, I didn’t have any idea how bad it was.”

♦ The Church’s annual “safeguarding budget” has risen to £7million from £50,000, the Archbishop told The Spectator. He said the Church had yet to deal with complainants properly, having told them “to shut up and go away, which is what we did for decades”.