Butler-sloss "Kept Claims of Bishop’s Abuse Quiet Because She Did Not Want the Allegations to Surface As She "Cared about the Church""

By Daniel Martin
Daily Mail
July 12, 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2689557/Butler-Sloss-kept-claims-bishop-s-abuse-quiet.html

The retired judge appointed this week to head an inquiry into VIP child abuse kept allegations about a bishop out of a report into a paedophile scandal, it was claimed last night.

Baroness Butler-Sloss is said to have told a victim of alleged abuse she did not want the claims to be in the public domain as she ‘cared about the Church’.

The former choir boy claims she said: ‘The Press would love a bishop.’

Baroness Butler-Sloss, right, is said to have told a victim of alleged abuse she did not want the claims to be in the public domain. Labour MP Simon Danczuk, left, helped expose claims paedophiles were operating in Westminster in past decades

Labour MP Simon Danczuk, who has helped expose claims paedophiles were operating in Westminster in past decades, renewed his call for her to step down as chairman of the new inquiry.

Her appointment has already come under fire as she is the brother-in-law of Sir Michael Havers, a former Attorney General in the 1980s – when the abuse is alleged to have taken place.

Her comments were reportedly made in 2011 during a meeting at the House of Lords with Phil Johnson, who suffered assaults by a number of clergymen when he was a choirboy in the Church of England Diocese of Chichester.

Baroness Butler-Sloss had been put in charge of an investigation into how the Church handled the abuse allegations.

She allegedly told Mr Johnson if she included the claims about the bishop in her report they’d ‘take the news’.

Mr Danczuk said: ‘She gives the impression that she is putting the reputation of the Church before the interests of victims.’

Baroness Butler-Sloss told The Times: ‘I have always striven to be fair and compassionate, mindful of the very real suffering of those who have been victims of crime or other injustice.

'I have never put the reputation of any institution, including the Church of England, above the pursuit of justice for victims. That is why I am honoured to be leading this inquiry.