Culture of Sex Abuse ‘flourished’ at Ampleforth and Downside Schools

By Andrew Norfolk
The Times
August 9, 2018

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/culture-of-sex-abuse-flourished-at-ampleforth-and-downside-schools-m7tq6gx2s

Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, where monks indulged in open displays of paedophilia

Two Roman Catholic schools allowed a culture of “appalling sexual abuse” to flourish for decades because safeguarding the church’s reputation was a higher priority than the protection of children, an inquiry has found.

Monks at Ampleforth, in North Yorkshire, indulged in open displays of paedophilia. At Downside, in Somerset, a headmaster built a bonfire to burn staff files that may have held incriminating evidence.

Each public school was attached to a monastery of the English Benedictine Congregation, whose past and present handling of misconduct allegations is being investigated by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

Ten men linked to the two institutions, most of them monks, have been convicted or cautioned for sexual offences against pupils, or for the possession of child abuse images.…