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Assessing the Risk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2016

Nicholas Coulton*
Affiliation:
Dean Emeritus of Newcastle

Extract

While the English Church shared in celebrating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, not least its own part in gaining those rights for everyone, the Church of England was reversing the principle that people are innocent until proved guilty. Such is the pressure of today's concern about child abuse, historic and present. As evidence mounts of the injustices done by false accusations against some high-profile public figures, we are less aware of the toll on other individuals whose turmoil does not hit the headlines. Those teaching and caring are often targeted for claims, and the Church of England has been toughening its procedures.

Type
Comment
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2016 

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References

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2 P Gambaccini, Love, Paul Gambaccini: my year under the yewtree (London, 2015). In an apology to Lord Brittan's widow in October 2015, the Metropolitan Police admitted that it had known for four months before his death in January 2015 that there was no substance to claims that he had raped a woman in 1967.

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9 L Goddard, ‘My child abuse inquiry is not just targeted on the famous’, The Observer, 3 April 2016.

11 Church of England, ‘Practice guidance: responding to serious safeguarding situations relating to church officers’ (24 June 2015, revised December 2015), p 19, available at <https://www.churchofengland.org/media/2254740/responding%20to%20serious%20situations.pdf>, accessed 30 May 2016.

12 Ibid.

13 Issued January 2006, revised February 2011 and July 2013. Re-issued with effect from 1 February 2014.

14 S O'Neill, ‘Anglican insurers told church to shun sex abuse victim’, The Times, 18 March 2016.

15 Ibid.

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17 T Wyatt, ‘George Bell's defenders say C of E must apologise for destroying his reputation’, Church Times, 24 March 2016.

18 The allegations against Bishop Bell, and the Church of England's handling of those complaints, are among the matters being considered by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. See <https://www.iicsa.org.uk/investigations/investigation-into-failings-by-the-anglican-church>, accessed 30 May 2016.

19 Wyatt, ‘George Bell's defenders’.

20 M Evans and D Barrett, ‘Operation Midland: Harvey Proctor told he faces no further action’, Daily Telegraph, 21 March 2016.

21 Ibid.

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23 E Adley, ‘“I want to be a voice for the voiceless,” says nun left in limbo over sex abuse allegations’, The Guardian, 2 April 2016.

24 Canon C 8, paras 6 and 7.

25 R (on the application of T) v the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2013] EWCA Civ 192 (Admin).

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29 From a letter by Christopher S Morley JP Buckinghamshire Bench in the Magistrate magazine, January 2016. See Transform Justice, ‘Justice denied? The experience of unrepresented defendants in the Criminal Courts’ (April 2016), p 1, <http://www.transformjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/TJ-APRIL_Singles.pdf>.

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36 Issues in Human Sexuality: a statement by the House of Bishops (London, 1991).

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