SCOTLAND
The Observer
Catherine Deveney
The Observer, Saturday 6 April 2013
A former child protection consultant for the Scottish Catholic church has criticised its procedures for dealing with abuse, branding them a sham, only weeks after the country’s most senior cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, was forced to resign over allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct.
As evidence mounts of the chaotic response in the church to the crisis that O’Brien’s resignation caused, Alan Draper, who worked for the Motherwell diocese for seven years, says in an interview with the Observer that the church has been unable to produce the annual audits of abuse claims that it promised in 1996, or give any details of a coherent national policy, and that individual bishops are allowed to make decisions piecemeal. “For too long the bishops have been kings in their castles and accountable to nobody,” said Draper. “It’s very corrosive. Some dioceses may be doing a good job – but we have no knowledge or information about what’s been going on.”
Draper worked for Bishop Joseph Devine but left in 2003 because, he says, his advice was consistently ignored. He said he had to take Devine “kicking and screaming” with him when he tried to implement good practice. Last month, after revelations that Draper knew of 20 abuse cases where no action was taken, the church issued a statement about his departure. Draper has now consulted his lawyer about a defamation action against the church.
Devine’s handling of abuse cases continues to be controversial. Last week his solicitors sent a letter to a victim of abuse, confirming that her counselling would be axed despite warnings from her psychotherapist that she has been suicidal “for substantial periods” during treatment. The woman, Ann Matthews, was abused from the ages of 11–18 by her parish priest. “They are being told someone’s life is in danger and all they can say is too bad,” says Matthews, who has attempted suicide on four occasions. “I am just a drain on their resources.”
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