LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian
February 4, 2019
By Owen Bowcott
The pope’s representative in Britain, archbishop Edward Adams, has been accused of “cowering behind his diplomatic immunity” for not providing crucial evidence to the child sexual abuse inquiry.
David Enright, a prominent lawyer representing victims of abuse in Catholic schools, has written to Theresa May, urging the prime minister to expel Adams, who is the papal nuncio, the Vatican’s diplomatic representative in the UK, if he does not cooperate.
Enright, a solicitor with the London law firm Howe and Co, raised the question of the archbishop’s position after the inquiry was told on Monday that the senior cleric had been slow to respond to repeated requests to hand over documents about mistreatment of children at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s school in west London.
Riel Karmy-Jones QC, counsel to the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA), confirmed that a series of letters had been sent to Adams since November.
Prof Alexis Jay, chair of the IICSA, has powers to call evidence, including enforcing imprisonment of those who defy a request. The dispute between church and state, however, is complicated because the archbishop is also a diplomat.
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