Ealing Abbey Abbot Resigns Over Safeguarding Failures

Dom Martin Shipperlee has apologised 'unreservedly' over his mistakes

(Ealing Abbey)

The abbot of Ealing Abbey has resigned over failings to investigate historic child sex abuse allegations at St Benedict's school.

Dom Martin Shipperlee, who had been in charge since 2000 and also taught at the school, appeared before the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) and was questioned about how the allegations were handled.

Two senior monks and teachers, Andrew Soper (formerly Father Laurence Soper) and David Pearce, were jailed for a series of offences against pupils at the school. Soper, fled the country to avoid conviction but was traced and in 2017 was found guilty of 19 rapes and sexual offences at St Benedict’s.

Abbot Martin gave evidence on Wednesday, 6 and Thursday 7 February and issued this statement the following day:

''As the IICSA hearings have shown, there has been a series of serious failings in Safeguarding and some of those failings have been mine.

"Much has been achieved to correct this in recent years and I have confidence in the present structures and policies. However this does not take away from the seriousness of what went before. In order for the Abbey to look forward with confidence new leadership is now needed and so I have resigned as Abbot so that this may be possible.

"It is not now for me to speak for the Abbey, but for myself. I wish to express my profound sorrow for my mistakes and my failure to properly manage potential offenders.

"I apologise unreservedly to all those I have let down; my brethren, St Benedict’s School, the wider Ealing community, those who might look to the Church to be simply much better than I have been, but above all to all those who have been abused and hurt by monks and have not been sufficiently protected. Most of this harm was done a long time ago, but its consequences are still with us and I must accept those consequences for myself.''

Jonathan West, who publishes a blog to highlighting abuse which has occurred at Ealing Abbey and St. Benedict's School, said, "He's done the right thing and resigned. I have some degree of respect for him for that. However the respect would be greater if he had done the right thing without exhausting every other possible option first. For almost his entire time in office he has been engaged in what looks from the outside to be an increasingly desperate search for measures to prevent this all coming to light."

A former parent at the school said, "Abbot Martin is a fundamentally decent man who could not conceive that people he liked and respected could be guilty of such terrible crimes. He can be accused of being naive and he made serious misjudgments, so it is right that he steps down, but it would be plain wrong to think he is not haunted by the consequences of his decisions and would have acted differently had he known the truth."

A dedicated section has been set up exclusively for all those who suffered abuse at Ealing Abbey or St Benedict’s School.Contact 08081451890– free phone number from all UK phones.

February 12th 2019