Church Statement on Matthew Ineson

Following a BBC report this week and comments on social media, the National Safeguarding Team has issued the following statement.


Statement on Matthew Ineson case

07/03/2018

Due to a BBC report this week and comments on social media the National Safeguarding Team has issued a statement to clarify details of the case.

Matthew Ineson’s case has been taken very seriously since it came to our attention. The account of the abuse he suffered as a teenager is harrowing and we are aware that the death of his alleged perpetrator, Trevor Devamanikkan, before he could stand trial, was extremely difficult for Matthew Ineson. We were not aware of any previous attempts by Trevor Devamanikkan* on his own life; had we known we obviously would have commissioned a risk assessment. Once the Church was aware of the criminal investigation, the Church made offers of support to Trevor Devamanikkan, which he refused.

We can confirm that the Archbishop of York responded to a letter he received from Matthew Ineson in June 2013, in which Matthew Ineson enclosed a copy of a letter to him from the then Bishop of Sheffield and his own response to the Bishop. The Archbishop did not fail to act on any disclosure made. As the Diocesan Bishop has responsibility for matters such as these in their diocese, this is a matter for the Diocesan Bishop to inform the Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser (Protecting All God’s Children – the Policy for Safeguarding Children in the Church of England, section 4.5). For this reason, the Archbishop acknowledged Matthew Ineson’s letter and assured him of his prayers.

As regards to a memo addressed to the Archbishop of York in June 2017 which refers to survivors in the plural, the Archbishop of York’s Office have already explained this was simply human error. We have worked closely with the police throughout and we have only ever dealt with one victim. This was double-checked with the police last week.

As we have said before there are currently complaints from Matthew Ineson himself, which are being investigated under the Clergy Discipline Measure. Once these complaints have been dealt with, the Core Group, which is the Church’s response to any allegations of abuse, has already decided that an independent review of the case will be commissioned.

It is not possible to go into any further details of this case.


Comment

The BBC report referred to in the statement Police look at bishops’ ‘failure to act’ over sex abuse claims was published on 5 March, and contains the footnote: You can see this story in full on BBC Inside Out Yorkshire and Lincolnshire at 19:30 GMT on BBC One on Monday 5 March, or via iPlayer for 30 days afterwards.

Matthew Ineson’s response to the statement from NST is reported in Thinking Anglicans.

*Devamanikkam, not Devamanikkan.

Cite this article as: David Pocklington, "Church Statement on Matthew Ineson" in Law & Religion UK, 8 March 2018, https://lawandreligionuk.com/2018/03/08/church-statement-on-matthew-ineson/

2 thoughts on “Church Statement on Matthew Ineson

  1. Is it significant that Trevor Devamanikkan who is dead is described as an “alleged perpetrator” whereas Bishop Bell (also deceased) was found guilty by decree in his absence?

    • I’d agree that it is “interesting to note” the different descriptions used, but “significant” suggests a correlation between the two, which may (or may not) exist. The CofE can be quite lax in its use of words, as we all can.

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