BishopAccountability.org
	Vicar Can’t Recall Any Sex Abuse Complaint Wales Online April 8, 2011 http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/04/08/vicar-can-t-recall-any-sex-abuse-complaint-91466-28483912/ A VICAR has said he has no recollection of a complaint from an alleged sex abuse victim 20 years ago. Father John Ward, who once worked at Llandaff and at a parish in Bridgend, was called to give evidence yesterday at Cardiff Crown Court where a cathedral verger denies sex charges. Colin James Adams, now 58, is accused of indecently assaulting and raping a teenage chorister when he was head verger at Llandaff Cathedral. At the time of his arrest last year he was in a similar role at St Nicholas Cathedral in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His alleged victim, now a man in his 30s, claims Adams groomed him with gifts and trips to religious sites before groping him and forcing him into full sex on the steps of a church vestry. He made a complaint to the police last year but says he spoke to Father John Ward about his concerns at the time in 1992. He told a jury, which has heard Adams, who was a married man with three children at the time but later came out as homosexual, deny eight charges, that he spoke to the minister at his Rectory in Bridgend. He had been a young altar server and had ambitions to be ordained but claimed that by that time he was trying to distance himself from the church because of sexual abuse. “I spoke to Father John at the time – I didn’t go into detail, just told him I felt uncomfortable around James (Adams),” he said. “He told me ‘I’ll speak to him quietly’ and I understood that’s what he did. I also understood he wrote a letter to James too.” But Father John Ward, called by the defence, said although he remembered the alleged victim in the church, he did not recall him speaking about Adams, who he lived next door to on Cathedral Green when they both worked at Llandaff. When asked: “Did you ever have occasion to speak to Colin James Adams or write him a letter about issues relating to the chorister?” Fr Ward replied: “No.” Questioned by prosecutor Sue Ferrier about the verger’s claim that he had been the boy’s mentor, and not his stalker, the minister said he had not been aware of any such mentoring. If a young person felt he had a calling, it would be something he would usually be told to take up with his parish priest. Fr Ward said there was nothing inappropriate with any of the books and readings Adams had sent to the boy but agreed he may have been concerned if he knew Adams was sending him letters or cards up to three times a week. “If I had known that, I would have had a word with him and his parents,” he said. Defence barrister Peter Davies in his closing speech told the jury: “Accused of something 20 years ago, all he can keep saying is ‘I didn’t do it.’ “There have been instances of children being abused by men in holy orders but please set that aside. Concentrate only on the evidence in this case, which we say is flawed.”
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.