Downside Abbey is to change how school is run

BY ED WEST
ONE OF THE country’s top Catholic schools is to undertake a major review of the way it is governed, it has been announced.
The “major restructuring of governance” at Downside School in Somerset follows the conviction of a former teacher.
The change was announced after Fr Richard White was jailed for five years for gross indecency and indecent assault against a pupil in the late 1980s. Two other Downside monks, also former teachers, received police cautions during an ongoing 18-month investigation.
Downside Abbey said that “significant changes” would be announced soon.
In a letter sent to former pupils Fr Aidan Bellenger, the Abbot of Downside, said the offences which White was convicted of occurred more than 20 years ago when safeguarding procedures were “clearly not adequate”.
He said the crimes were “something that is a matter of great regret to all of us now associated with Downside. The school has since fundamentally reviewed the way it approaches safeguarding issues, and continues to reform in order to provide the safest possible environment for those in its care.
“It is the school’s understanding that two former members of staff received cautions last year in relation to historical allegations. One of those involved left Downside in 1970, while the other concerns an 80-year-old former staff member on an issue unrelated to pupil welfare.” White, of Hyde, Fordingbridge, Hampshire, was sentenced at Taunton Crown Court last week. At his trial the court was told that he was warned about his behaviour after molesting one 12-yearold boy.
White, known to pupils as Fr Nick, had been allowed to continue teaching even after he was caught abusing a child in 1987 and went on to assault another pupil in the unior school, the Times newspaper reported. He was placed on restricted ministry after that incident but was not arrested until last year, Fr Bellenger said that “police and press were aware at the time of the accusations against Richard Nicholas White but the victims’ parents and the police did not proceed to prosecution”. The court heard that White lured one of the boys, who was interested in old books, to the monastery library, which was usually off-limits to students. There he abused the boy, paying him 50p per time.
White, a former British Army soldier, was dismissed from his teaching post and spent the next 20 years being sent to different monastic communities across the country.
One of White’s victims told the Times that the former priest had singled him out as vulnerable when he taught him geography from 1987. Rob Hastings, a 35-year-old IT consultant, said: “I had an interest in old books and maps and he used to take me to the library in the abbey. That’s where the abuse happened, and it went on for 18 months.” The ordeal ended after other pupils became aware of the abuse, because he had extra money to spend at the tuck shop, and another priest reported it to the headmaster. White was removed from the school but Mr Hastings’s parents did not want to take action.
Avon and Somerset Constabulary said it was unaware of the allegations until it began an inquiry after the Diocese of Clifton received allegations in 2010.
Mr Hastings said: “I didn’t know how to deal with this when I was 12. I was told then that the Church knew how to handle it. I am aware of one boy abused by White before me, but the Church dealt with it by allowing him to carry on teaching in the junior school.
“I believe there are other former pupils out there who suffered similar experiences and I would encourage them to come forward to the police.
“The question that remains is, are the controls, the safety nets, the safeguarding procedures really being adhered to in places where religious orders are in complete control of schools?” In October a report by Lord Carlile of Berriew following the abuse scandal at the Benedictinerun St Benedict’s in Ealing, west London, said that the order should not have been put in charge of the school without checks and balances.
The report is expected to serve as a model for other schools run by religious orders.
Downside School was unavailable for comment.