Church of England put reputation first, child abuse inquiry told

The Church of England prioritised its reputation over the safety of children, born from an “arrogance which equates the church with God”, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse has heard.

Speaking on the first day of three weeks of hearings into the C of E’s handling of abuse cases stretching back decades, the specialist abuse lawyer Richard Scorer said survivors had faced years of institutional cover-up and denial.

The C of E could not be trusted to put its own house in order, said Scorer. “As the established church, [it] claims to offer moral guidance and moral leadership to the country. Yet clerical sex abuse cases and the scandals associated with them powerfully undermine that claim.”

Scorer, who represents 21 survivors, said: “It must be clear now that if you want to abuse children, there is no more effective way of terrifying and silencing your victims than to claim to have God on your side.

“If you combine that with an environment in which perpetrators are routinely forgiven, in which victims are disparaged and in which there is no clear legal obligation to report allegations of abuse to the statutory authorities, then you have the perfect honeypot for attracting more abusers and indeed the perfect environment in which they can flourish.”

Survivors need the inquiry to “to step in and do what only you can do, which is to make the church properly accountable externally for these appalling scandals”.

An independent body should be set up to investigate allegations of abuse and was capable of overriding bishops “unwilling to comply with their responsibilities”, said Scorer. Mandatory reporting of disclosures of abuse should be introduced, he added. “The C of E cannot be allowed to carry on marking its own homework.”

Source: theguardian