THE Archbishop of York is to issue a formal apology to three sisters who, when they were children, were subject to “horrendous abuse” in a northern diocese, a spokesperson for Church House confirmed this week.
On Tuesday, the BBC reported on the case of Jenny, Wendy, and Christina Read, who said that they were “frequently” abused by their father, a male curate, and a female churchwarden in “sadistic rituals” at night within a church in the north-east of England.
The sisters, who waived their right to anonymity, told the BBC that they were raped by their father (who died in 1996) and a curate — neither of whom has been named for legal reasons. The churchwarden, Mary Wairing, subjected the sisters to physical, spiritual, and emotional abuse, they said. She died in 2015.
The women disclosed the abuse to three bishops — in 1993, 2003, and 2005 — when the curate and Ms Wairing were still serving.
The Church Times understands that an independent lessons-learnt review of the case commissioned by the Church of England has, under its terms of reference, not been published. A draft is understood to have been seen by the BBC. The BBC reports that the review found that the sisters had been “subjected to abuse based on the consistency of their testimonies, the graphic and detailed re-telling of their abuse, and therapy required”.
The “initial disclosures were poorly handled”, and the response from the institution in 1993 and 2003 “compounded the harm” for the sisters, who have all been diagnosed with mental-health problems linked to childhood abuse, the BBC reports.
In 1993, one of the sisters, Wendy, sought informal advice from the then Bishop of Monmouth, Dr Rowan Williams, later Archbishop of Canterbury, who was a friend. She was told that he had spoken to the relevant bishop and urged him to respond; Lord Williams told the BBC that he had also taken steps to identify the curate.
In 2003, a year after becoming Archbishop, Lord Williams was formally informed of the allegations in writing when Wendy reported the claim to the then Bishop of Whitby, the Rt Revd Robert Ladds, who served until his retirement in 2008. Bishop Ladds had urged her to contact the police, but Wendy told the BBC that she had “been there and done that” after a criminal investigation ten years earlier had brought no charges. “It felt like he wanted nothing to do with it,” she told the BBC.
Lord Williams told the BBC that, after learning that Bishop Ladds was not going to investigate, he “could and should” have pressed the then Archbishop of York to pursue the case. “I very much regret that I did not follow up in this way,” he is reported as saying.
The sisters said that they made a further report in 2005, of which Lord Williams said that he was not aware.
Bishop Ladds referred the BBC to a Church of England statement, saying that he had cooperated fully and would not be making further comment.
The statement from Church House, also issued to the Church Times on Tuesday, states: “It is clear that the experiences of horrendous abuse described by the three sisters — bravely disclosed to the Church over a 30-year period — continue to have a devastating effect on their lives.
“The Church’s response to survivors who come forward today is very different to that given when the sisters disclosed their experiences in 1993, 2003 and 2005.”
The case had, it says, since been highlighted by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) Truth Project in 2020, and the relevant diocese “has worked closely with the sisters who are each receiving ongoing therapeutic, specialist and financial support”.
The statement concludes: “While their experience of abuse was reported to the police on three separate occasions with no further action, and in 2003 was reviewed by the Church’s national child-protection lead, the pastoral care initially provided by the Church fell short of today’s standards. We are truly sorry for the response they received when they originally came forward.
“It has been agreed that a formal apology from the Church will come from the Archbishop of York, who has now met all three sisters.”
