Church in Six-figure Abuse Claims Payout

The Press
May 15, 2015

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/12952669.Church_in_six_figure_abuse_claims_payout/

Rev Terence King: Abuse of trust

THE Church of England has made a six-figure payout to a man who says he suffered years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of a retired York vicar.

The man, whose identity is protected, received the undisclosed sum 13 years after the Rev Terence King committed suicide on October 31, 2002, while under investigation by West Yorkshire Police over child sex abuse.

Mr King, who was 69 and from Abbey Street, Clifton, was found dead in his garage on October 31, 2002 - the day after he walked out of The Retreat in Heslington Road, York, where he had been receiving treatment.

The man says Mr King made his life hell for eight years when he was a child and Mr King was a vicar at St Mary the Virgin Church at Woodkirk, near Morley, West Yorkshire.

He says the sexual, physical and mental abuse he suffered in the church and vicarage has had a lasting impact on his life.

His hopes of becoming a vet ended when he failed to finish university, and he has had relationship problems.

He took out a civil action against the Church of England three years ago “to get some sort of justice”.

Now a married father in his thirties, he says the vicar tried to stop him going to the police at the time.

“He told me he would tell my parents various things to stop me from telling them so I was stuck in this world of deceit and with no way out.

“There was no way out of the situation I was in.”

A spokesman for the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales said: “This vicar grossly misused his position of trust, and the diocese deeply regrets the harm he caused.

“We take very seriously any allegations of inappropriate behaviour and abuse, which are immediately reported to the police.

“We encourage any survivors of abuse to come forward so that justice may be done.

“Over the last decade we have implemented stringent safeguarding procedures (in accordance with national policies) which includes the training of clergy and lay people in safeguarding matters.

“These procedures are continually being assessed, and we are working with a number of agencies to ensure that our churches are places of safety for all.

“A claim made against the Church recently has been resolved.”

At the inquest into Mr King’s death in 2003, coroner Donald Coverdale said Mr King “had had an unhappy time in the days and weeks leading up to his admission to The Retreat, with the ongoing police investigation and the prospect of criminal charges being put to him”.

“He had denied the charges put to him, but the police were determined to pursue the case and there may have been more matters to come to light.”

Recording a verdict of suicide, Mr Coverdale said nobody could have known Mr King was going to leave The Retreat on October 30 and take his own life. Mr King moved to York in 1999 after retiring from his job as a vicar in Wakefield.