Dr Rowan Williams – who set up an inquiry into child protection policies in the diocese – said an interim report showed ‘many and long-standing failures in implementing a robust and credible safeguarding policy.’
Dr Williams appointed Bishop John Gladwin and Chancellor Rupert Bursell QC to conduct the inquiry in the wake of child abuse scandals – the first such appointments for more than a century.
In May last year a review found serious failings after two priests were allowed to continue working despite being accused of child abuse.
Colin Pritchard was vicar of St Barnabas in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, until 2007, despite having been reported to police over sex offences a decade earlier. He was later jailed for sexually abusing two young boys.
One of the boys was also abused by Roy Cotton, who was a parish priest in Brede near Rye.
But prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to charge him before he died in September 2006.
Dr Williams said: ‘I am very grateful...to all who have co-operated with this process – not least those survivors of abuse who have shared their experience. The abiding hurt and damage done to them is something that none of us in the Church can ignore.’
Dr Williams appointed Bishop John Gladwin and Chancellor Rupert Bursell QC to conduct the inquiry in the wake of child abuse scandals – the first such appointments for more than a century.
In May last year a review found serious failings after two priests were allowed to continue working despite being accused of child abuse.
Colin Pritchard was vicar of St Barnabas in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, until 2007, despite having been reported to police over sex offences a decade earlier. He was later jailed for sexually abusing two young boys.
One of the boys was also abused by Roy Cotton, who was a parish priest in Brede near Rye.
But prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to charge him before he died in September 2006.
Dr Williams said: ‘I am very grateful...to all who have co-operated with this process – not least those survivors of abuse who have shared their experience. The abiding hurt and damage done to them is something that none of us in the Church can ignore.’