UNITED KINGDOM
Archbishop of York
Wednesday 22nd October 2014
The Office of Lord Hope of Thornes issued the following statement today. Bishop David Hope is a former Bishop of London, and the former Archbishop of York.
STATEMENT RE THE WADDINGTON INQUIRY
Lord Hope issued the following statement today
(Wednesday 22 October 2014)
I have maintained throughout my career that any allegation of abuse made against anyone connected to the Church must be dealt with professionally and swiftly. Accordingly, as someone who has always taken safeguarding extremely seriously, I am obviously disappointed that this Inquiry has raised concerns about how the two cases in question were dealt with during my time at Bishopthorpe.
As Bishop of Wakefield, then London followed by my time as Archbishop of York I always took great care and acted in, what I believed to be, an appropriate and effective manner in cases where the abuse of victims was brought to my attention. I note that the Inquiry itself is clear that no allegations of abuse in the Diocese of York were ever made during my time as Archbishop.
At the time 15 and 12 years ago respectively such allegations as were reported to me were unspecific. Indeed the full details of the allegations in question have never been brought to my attention either at the time that I was Archbishop, or during this Inquiry. The allegations were also from unnamed sources who had indicated their unwillingness at that stage to go to the police. In such circumstances, at that time, there was no recommendation that reporting to the police and statutory authorities was mandatory and that there was ‘no single, correct procedure for dealing with a disclosure of abuse by an adult'[1]. If any allegations were passed to me today, however, I would not hesitate to inform the police and the statutory authorities.
I am glad that the Report has found that there is no evidence that Waddington abused anyone else after I spoke to him in 1999.
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