Recent News

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16 February 2010

Pope condemns Irish bishops over child sex abuse

Pope Benedict XVI has upbraided Irish Roman Catholic bishops over their handling of child sex abuse scandals.

He condemned abuse of children by priests as a "heinous crime", and said Irish bishops must act to restore the Church's "moral credibility".

During two days of meetings at the Vatican, the Pope reprimanded the bishops for a "failure… for years to act effectively", a statement said.

15 February 2010

Appeal delays Market Weighton abuse claims pay-out

More than 100 people who claim to have been physically and sexually abused at a Catholic children's home face further delays in their fight for compensation.

Former pupils at St William's Community Home in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, started legal action for damages in 2006.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough has appealed against a ruling that it was responsible.

27 January 2010

Police failures in Market Weighton child abuse case

Humberside Police has been criticised by a watchdog for how it handled claims of sex abuse at a children's home.

Former principal Father James Carragher, of St William's Community Home in Market Weighton, was jailed in 2004 for abusing boys in his care.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) started an inquiry in 2005 after cases of others accused of abuse at the home collapsed.

25 January 2010

60 sex offences against children a day - NSPCC

More than 21,000 sex offences against children were recorded last year - the equivalent of 60 every day, police figures obtained by the NSPCC suggest.

The children's charity said the figures, covering England and Wales, were "shocking", but the true extent of the problem was "far worse".

The figures have increased by 660 cases compared with the year before, although for 2007/2008 only 42 forces responded.

21 January 2010

Jersey's historic abuse case convictions upheld

Two men convicted as part of Jersey's "Historic Abuse Enquiry" have lost an appeal at the island's Royal Court.

Claude Donnelly, 69, who was jailed for offences of child abuse and rape, had argued his 15-year sentence was excessive and his trial unfair.

29 December 2009

Woman in court over child abuse

A woman accused of child abuse offences in connection with paedophile Colin Blanchard has appeared at South Sefton Magistrates' Court by video link.

Tracy Dawber, 43, from Guildford Road, Southport, Merseyside, faces charges including possessing indecent images of children and sexual assault on a child.

03 December 2009

Catholic order Sisters of Mercy in sex abuse payout

The Irish Sisters of Mercy is to supply a 128m euros (£116m) package as reparation for decades of child abuse in its schools and orphanages......read more

27 November 2009

Four archbishops colluded to cover up child sex attacks

The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland connived with the authorities in a cover-up spanning decades to shield paedophile priests from prosecution, an official report concluded yesterday. Hundreds of crimes against children were not reported as the four archbishops of the Archdiocese of Dublin remained wedded to the “maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church and the preservation of its assets”......read more

26 November 2009

Ireland’s Christian Brothers to pay £146m to victims of child abuse

The Christian Brothers religious order is to give €161 million (£146 million) in cash and property in reparation for its role in decades of child abuse in Ireland.

The Brothers said that €34 million in cash would be used to help victims of abuse, whose plight was identified in a government report in May. However, the move was criticised, with one victims’ group describing it as “mere smoke and mirrors”.

25 November 2009

Speaking Out acclaim for survivors of childhood abuse

Three survivors of appalling childhood abuse were last night honoured with the Speaking Out award at the Mental Health Media Awards ceremony.

Alastair Rolfe, Mark Payge and Tom Perry received the award as a result of their courageous accounts of repetitive childhood sexual abuse, which featured in a Bafta-winning documentary, Chosen. The men, now middle-aged, each experienced the abuse at Caldicott private school in Buckinghamshire at the hands of three different male teachers.