The Church of England is to make far-reaching changes to the way it deals with cases of sex abuse, following a highly critical independent report that details how senior church figures failed to act upon repeated disclosures of a sadistic assault by a cleric.<\/p>\n
The first independent review commissioned by the church into its handling of a sex abuse case highlights the \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d\u009d failure of those in senior positions to record or take action on the survivor\u2019s disclosures over a period of almost four decades.
The Guardian understands that among those told of the abuse were three bishops and a senior clergyman later ordained as a bishop. None of them are named in the report by Ian Elliott, a safeguarding expert, but the survivor identified them as Tim Thornton, now bishop of Truro; Richard Holloway, former bishop of Edinburgh in the Scottish Episcopal church, now retired; John Eastaugh, former bishop of Hereford, now dead; and Stephen Platten, former bishop of Wakefield and now honorary assistant bishop of London.<\/p>\n
The church acknowledged the report was \u201cembarrassing and uncomfortable\u201d\u009d reading.<\/p>\n