Scottish Church Mulls Independent Inquiry into Abuse

The Tablet
August 9, 2013

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/latest-news/5579

The Church in Scotland may call in an outside body to review its safeguarding records, a senior member of the bishops' conference has revealed.

Fr Tom Boyle, Assistant Secretary General of the Scottish Bishops' Conference, confirmed the Church would review historic files detailing alleged abuse kept in diocesan archives and that an independent agency may be used to carry this out.

He said the Church planned to publish the review next year, although no time span has been set for how far back the cases being examined would go.

The Scottish bishops have also revealed that they will hold an internal review of abuse cases handled by the dioceses for the period 2006 to 2012.

Pressure is building for a wider independent inquiry to be held into the Church's safeguarding procedures - along the lines of the Nolan inquiry in England and Wales published in 2001.

Scottish police have received fresh allegations of sexual abuse carried out by monks at Fort Augustus School and its prep school in East Lothian following an exposé by the BBC broadcast last week.