Paedophile priests are to be treated in secret safe houses 
By Rajeev Syal and Marcello Mega
(Filed: 05/08/2001) 

ROMAN Catholic and Church of England clergymen jailed for sexual offences are to be treated in
halfway houses after their release.

The safe houses, at secret locations, will cost about £500 a week and be financed by parishes from both
Churches. The move follows growing criticism that both Churches have failed to address the issue of
child sexual abuse.

Allegations of child abuse have damaged the reputation and trust of both Churches over the past five years and many leading clergymen have been accused of failing to root out paedophiles. More than 50 priests and lay preachers are currently in jail for offences against children.

Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, was accused
of failing to act against a paedophile when he was Bishop of Arundel and Brighton. 

He allowed Fr Michael Hill to continue his ministry despite allegations from parishioners. Hill is now
serving a five-year jail sentence.

Ray Wyre, Britain's foremost paedophile counsellor, who is setting up the homes, said: "The Churches
recognise that offending priests have specific problems as they struggle with their faith, their guilt and confront the damage they have inflicted."

At present, priests or ministers who abuse children are sent to religious retreats, which are wholly
inadequate, according to Mr Wyre.

Child abusers sent to the safe houses will receive counselling in "relapse prevention therapy" to help
them to control improper sexual urges. Some will be treated to help them leave the Church and others
helped to find a new vocation away from children.

The halfway houses have been established after extensive consultation with leading figures in both
Churches. Gregory Cameron, the chaplain to the Archbishop of Wales, said that they had been
arguing for a secure facility for child-abusing paedophile priests for years.

He said: "This initiative will allow us to pay for a secure environment so they can be rehabilitated."

A spokesman for Bishop Christopher Budd, the Catholic Church's leading expert on paedophilia,
said: "This will extend the Church's duty of care and help our former priests to become better people." 

Paedophile victims, however, yesterday criticized the plans and called for greater treatment of the
abused. 

Margaret Kennedy, from Ministers and Clergy Victims of Sexual Abuse Survivors, said: "When are the
Churches going to establish a centre for the abused? They have forgotten who really suffers."

One of the most senior figures in the Catholic Church in England and Wales had defended his decision to allow a known pedophile to continue working as a priest, despite warnings he would re-offend.

A BBC investigation found evidence suggesting Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O’Connor ignored the advice of doctors and therapists that Father Michael Hill would carry on assaulting children. An investigation for Radio 5 Live found one priest under investigation who was still working. Another, recently suspended, was allowed to work in a primary school while under suspicion of abusing children. He had been accused of abuse twice before.

Since 1996, six priests have been convicted of child abuse. In each case, the church knew of previous allegations. The Church introduced the guidelines following the case of a Midlands priest jailed for sexually abusing seven children. Numerous complaints had been made against him, but the Church failed to call in the authorities.

Archbishop Murphy-O’Connor told BBC News 24 he “regretted exceedingly what happened” – namely that after he allowed Hill back to work in 1985 after suspending him as priest, Hill went on to indecently assault more altar boys and was jailed in 1997. Hill was jailed after pleading guilty to nine counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency, committed over a 20-year period.

The spokesman said since 1994 the Catholic Church has had strict rules in place which state that if a complaint is made against a priest, social services should be informed and the priest removed from parish duties. The police is informed of such incidents, but he said parents themselves frequently did not want to get law, for fear of putting their children through a trial.

Archbishop Murphy-O’Connor has now agreed that boys abused by the priest should receive compensation, but as part of the settlement they were required not to speak publicly about what happened.

A BBC News investigation in 1999 revealed evidence that some catholic bishops in the UK were failing to follow the church’s protection guidelines, allowing priests accused of child molestation to continue working.

John Wilkins, editor of Catholic weekly The Tablet, says, “the image of the church has been tarnished appallingly by paedophile priests around the world. And this has damaged the church’s reputation in the UK. It has done enormous damage to priests themselves, (they were caught) and their morale is very low. They feel depressed and defensive. It has been appalling for church.”

“There is mistrust between parishioners and priests, the general public and priests, as suspected paedophile priests would most likely be shuffled sideways to another parish for them to continue to prey on young males and the incidents would be hushed up with cash settlements!”

“Last October Pope John Paul II sacked Father John Lloyd, who raped a 16-year old girl and indecently assaulted two altar boys in south Wales- the first such dismissal of a British priest in recent history. The Pope dismissed three American priests in 1998, and sacked two diocesan priests in Ireland in recent years.”

Yet Mr. Wilkins questions whether those at the top of the church hierarchy take the issue seriously enough. The Pope has twice received the former archbishop of Vienna, Hans Hermann Groer, at the Vatican, despite allegations that he had sexually molested young clergymen.