Downside School apologises to parents over revelations resulting from police examination of school records
Seven Roman Catholic monks with links to a top public school have faced police investigation over child sex and pornography offences, the school admitted today.
In a letter to the parents of the 1,500 pupils at Downside School in Somerset, Dom Aidan Bellenger, the Benedictine Abbot of Downside, apologised to parents and named some of the monks who were picked out by a criminal investigation looking at 50 years of confidential school records.
Of the seven monks from Downside, he said four had faced police action and two, against whom allegations "were founded" , had restrictions imposed on their ministry. The seventh was cleared and allowed to return to his monastic life.
The school has already announced a review of the school's governance after a monk and former teacher at the school, Richard White, was jailed for five years for sexually abusing two 12-year-old boys in the late 1980s.
His abuse was known about by monastic and school staff at the time but he evaded criminal charges for more than 20 years.
"We are truly sorry that children and young people have been abused by those whom they should have been able to trust," Dom Bellenger wrote.
"We are committed to doing everything possible to ensure that such things do not happen again."These unhappy events inevitably cast a long shadow, but your chief concern will of course be the welfare, security and happiness of children currently at Downside. Many steps have been taken to ensure that the Downside portrayed in some parts of the media is a thing of the past."
Records stretching back 50 years were made available to Avon and Somerset Police.
These records brought to light the abuse carried out by White, known as Father Nicholas when he taught geography at the school.
Downside has been criticised by one of White's victims, Rob Hastings, who waived his right to anonymity and urged other victims of abuse at the school to contact police.
The 35-year-old said it was time the school faced up to the level of abuse which went on, criticising the school for covering it up for so long.
"I feel that Downside had been infiltrated by paedophiles at all levels," he said.
"The school needs to admit its level of failure to support the safeguarding of children. Once it has done that it is in a place to move forward and make it a safer place."