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(main content taken and adapted from Sandbox of from GroupCohomologist)

George Bell (bishop): Child abuse allegations and the Carlile Report

1995 - 2013 (The Initial Allegations)

In 1995, when Eric Kemp was Bishop of Chichester, a woman wrote to him alleging that Bell had sexually abused her as a child during the late 1940s and early 1950s. After making simple inquiries, Kemp wrote to offer the complainant counseling, though this offer was greeted with silence and subsequently not pursued. In September 2012, the woman – who is known by the pseudonym ‘Carol’ – reiterated her complaint to the office of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

However Carol did not receive a response and so made contact a third time, in October 2012. The response to this, from the Archbishop's correspondence secretary, offered sympathy but otherwise flatly stated "..the former bishops of Chichester are all now dead so there is nothing we can do to take your story forward and deal with it."

In April 2013, Carol contacted Lambeth palace for a fourth time and after the message was registered internally Carol was put into contact with Gemma Wordsworth, a specialist advisor to the CofE in matters of sexual abuse/violence. Carol would be in continuing correspondence with Gemma throughout the subsequent investigation(s), and received some counseling through the church in that same year.

2013 - 2015 (Sussex Police and the CofE Investigate)

In June 2013, 55 years after Bell's death, the Diocese of Chicester wrote to Sussex Police outlining the allegations against George Bell and requesting a search of police archives for any historical record or precedent. In July, a detective was assigned to interview Carol and record a detailed account. Though this prompted further provision of information from the CofE relating to Bell's historic contact with children through the Kindertransport scheme, no public call for evidence was made and no witnesses were pursued, nor was there any formal police inquiry into these allegations. Sussex police advised the Church in December 2013 that the allegations themselves were "credible" and could not be discounted, but simultaneously advised that they were both unable (given the resources necessary and the timescales involved) and unwilling (given the lack of sufficient evidence) to pursue the case further.

Internally the Church remained cautious, and in February 2014 it began preparing for a potential Civil claim, and in expectation of the allegations against Bell being made public. In April 2014 the CofE, under direction of Colin Perkins, assembled a "Core group" of 14 professionals to direct and monitor the ongoing process, including a solicitor and several high-ranking clergy. The Core Group discussed potential damage to the church's reputation, the possibility of financial settlement and the face-value integrity of Carol's allegations. The core group were advised to commission a "forensic assessment" from a professional Psychiatrist.

• The first assessment, by Dr Judith Freedman, was tasked to assess the degree of damage suffered by Carol on the assumption that the allegations were true. (cit8) The core group determined that the outcome of this assessment was insufficient on its own to impact their decision-making.
• A second assessment, by Professor Anthony Maden, was then tasked specifically to assess Carol's credibility.

Professor Maden concluded that while he "..found the Claimant to be an apparently straightforward woman of good character." there are nonetheless, "....enormous problems for the expert arising from the fact that the Claimant is now assessed 63 years after the material events." and also admitted "The delay has caused enormous problems for the expert asked to assess the case." Professor Maden elaborates on his reasoning more fully, and advises caution, but critically to the Carlile Report this information was not circulated in its full version to the core group, nor was it seen by all members.

Based on these two reports, and the continuing discussions of the core group, the diocese of Chichester decided to pay compensation in September 2015 and Martin Warner, the Bishop of Chichester, issued a formal apology to the complainant the following month. Between its formation in April 2014 and the final meeting in December 2015 the Core group met a total of 5 times.

Aftermath and public response

In February 2016 Carol spoke publicly for the first time, in an interview with the Brighton Argus about being sexually abused from the age of five until her family moved away when she was nine.

Soon after there were criticisms of the way in which the Church of England handled the case. These included an article in The Spectator by Peter Hitchens, who described Bell as a "fair, just, brave man" who deserved the "presumption of innocence". An editorial in the Church of England Newspaper similarly wrote that Bell was "being tried and convicted by the Church of England with little thought for proper justice and due process". On 13 November 2015, Alan Pardoe, a judge and Queen's Counsel, criticised the handling of the allegations against Bell as "slipshod and muddled" in a letter to the Church Times. There were further criticisms of the handling of the case in the Church Times of 20 November 2015 by a group of theologians and historians headed by Jeremy Morris, Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. An accompanying letter from Dr Brian Hanson said there had been unhappiness expressed at the Chichester diocesan synod over the national church's handling of the issue. In the Daily Telegraph of 2 January 2016, Charles Moore severely criticised the Church's treatment of Bishop Bell.

On 7 January 2016, The Daily Telegraph published a letter by Bishop Warner stating that the church was mindful of the widely felt hurt about its decision, especially because of the bishop’s great reputation. However the church was seeking, "to move on from a culture in which manipulation of power meant that victims were too afraid to make allegations, or allegations were easily dismissed." In future, "we must provide safeguards of truth and justice for all, victim and accused alike." The bishop welcomed the Goddard Inquiry, "as a more balanced forum than the media might be for a judicial and forensic assessment of our handling of child-abuse cases" .

Following the settlement with the alleged victim, Bishop Bell School in Eastbourne changed its name to St Catherine's College, Eastbourne; similar suggestions were made for the house named after Bell at Bishop Luffa School in Chichester and the building named after him at Chichester Cathedral.

The George Bell Group, containing several leading churchmen and women, lawyers, and members of both Houses of Parliament, published a review on 20 March 2016 in which they challenged the Church's evidence against Bishop Bell and attacked it for failing to find or interview a key witness or examine Bell's own extensive personal archive.

On 30 June 2016 the case formed a large part of a debate in the House of Lords on historical child sex abuse.

2016-2017 (The Carlile Report)

On 28 June 2016 the Church of England announced that it would hold an independent review of the procedure used to investigate the allegations. It announced on 22 November 2016 that the QC Lord Carlile would be the reviewer.

On 15 December 2017 the Church of England officially published Lord Carlile's report along with a formal statement containing both comment and reflection from several senior figures in the church: Peter Hancock (Bishop of Wells and lead safeguarding Bishop for the CofE), Martin Warner (the current Bishop of Chichester) and Archbishop Justin Welby. The statement contains apologies to the relatives of the bishop for the way it investigated child abuse claims made against him, both recent and historic, and seeks to acknowledge the mistakes highlighted by the report and promises to implement its recommendations. This announcement was widely reported in the British media.

Specifically, Lord Carlile's report criticises the Church response as "deficient" in a number of respects:

• The report found that the 'core group' lacked a responsible person to be accountable for it's consistent operation. It recommends that such groups in future have a nominated 'chair'.
• The report found that no attempt or desire to represent George Bell or his family was made in the group, despite Carol herself having an advocate, and recommends "someone assigned to it to represent the interests of the accused person and his or her descendants.".
• The report found that police advice was both misleading and misunderstood by the core group, though it acknowledges this as unintentional. The advisory email from the police in December 2013 (indicating a hypothetical intent to arrest in the event the bishop was alive), was taken by the core group to mean that the allegations were true. Carlile explains at length that this is not the case, and that an arrest in itself offers no indication of the guilt, or otherwise, of the arrested party. Carlile recommends that such groups should always be "assisted by a person who is qualified to give relevant legal advice." to avoid this in future.

Lord Carlile concludes that the CofE "failed to follow a process that was fair and equitable to both sides" and that, in a desire to avoid the mistakes of the past, had "rushed to judgement."

Response to the Carlile Report

The publication of the Report has widely been considered a devastating criticism, from sources both within and outside the CofE, and many have criticsed the archbishop for failing to apologise and for being inconsistent.(cit) Several commentators have gone further, suggesting that Welby should resign over his seeming refusal to clear the name of the Bishop. Others have lamented the delay in publishing the report, as well as the official statement.

As of Jan 2018, the buildings and schools that were renamed following the church's announcement have remain unchanged.