A former abbot of Downside has accused his predecessors of protecting child abusers at the school.
Fr Aidan Bellenger, in a letter made public last week, said child abuse was the “heart of darkness” in the community and that it was “tolerated by all my predecessors as abbot”.
The letter was sent to Fr Leo Maidlow Davis, the school’s chairman of governors, a year ago and was read out at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
The inquiry, set up in 2015, is examining the mishandling of abuse allegations at two Benedictine schools, Downside and Ampleforth. The hearing was due to end today.
Two monks who taught at Downside have been jailed for child sex offences. One, Nicholas White, was given a five-year sentence in 2012 for child abuse in the 1980s. The other, Dunstan O’Keeffe, was jailed in 2004 for downloading images of child pornography.
Fr Bellenger, who was abbot from 2006 to 2014, said he was “particularly concerned that Richard [Yeo], who should have known better, attempted to protect Nicholas and Dunstan when he should have been protecting their victims.
“Neither was penitent. Both were protected and indirectly encouraged by their abbots, John [Roberts], Charles [Fitzgerald-Lombard] and Richard [Yeo].”
Fr Yeo, who served his eight-year term as Abbot of Downside from 1998 to 2006, went on to be elected abbot president of the English Benedictine Congregation. He stood down in August.
Fr Bellenger said that, aside from White and O’Keeffe, two other monks “avoided trial, but their offences (more than allegations) remain on record”.
He said that another monk who had taken part in “perverse and criminal” activities still lived at the monastery. Two more, he said, were “open to allegations of paedophilia”.
He also predicted that “more historic cases will emerge”.
A spokesman for the English Benedictine Congregation said it did not wish to comment while hearings were underway.
Before the inquiry began Fr Christopher Jamison, abbot president, said the congregation was “truly sorry” for what had happened. “We have to listen and we have to change. In short, we have to do more to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation,” he said.
Kate Gallafent QC, speaking on behalf of Downside, said the school was in the process of reviewing its governance, and exploring how it “could become legally and financially separate from the abbey”. She said Downside had also commissioned a review into its safeguarding procedures.
A community of Benedictines settled at Downside in Somerset in 1814 after living in exile in Flanders.
• A former abbot who taught at St Benedict’s school in Ealing, west London, has been found guilty of abusing boys in the 1970s and 80s.
Andrew Soper, a Benedictine priest formerly known as Fr Laurence Soper, was found guilty of 19 charges of rape and other sexual offences relating to 10 boys at the school.
Soper had fled to Kosovo in 2011, living as a fugitive for five years.
He had previously been living in Rome, working as a treasurer at the International Benedictine Confederation.
The national inquiry will look at the handling of abuse claims at St Benedict’s, Ealing, in a subsequent phase.
Bishops ‘want to become Catholic’
An Anglican bishop who was jailed for sexually abusing 18 young men is seeking to become Catholic to “live and worship in anonymity”.
Peter Ball, who was Bishop of Lewes and then of Gloucester, was jailed for 32 months in 2015. He and his twin brother Michael, former Bishop of Truro, have contacted the Diocese of Clifton about the possibility. Their intention was revealed in an email that Michael mistakenly sent to a BBC journalist.
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