ENGLAND
Christian Today
March 9, 2018
By Harry Farley
A bishop had a habit of ‘filleting’ key information about potential abusing priests from their files, making it harder to trace previous offending, an inquiry heard.
Roger Meekings, who carried out an independent review into past cases of abuse in Chichester in 2009, said he was not shown documents that may have shed light on abusive clergy. He added that information about priests who were later jailed, including former bishop of Gloucester, Peter Ball, had not been in their personel files.
‘I remember being told that a previous bishop may have had a habit of “filleting” the blue files’ which contain background information on all clergy, he told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse which is holding three weeks of hearings into the Church of England.
He added that Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check data was often missing from clergy’s files.
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