Litany of failure

The true extent of Waddington's criminality may never be documented. Thus far ten men have identified themselves as victims but most of them know there are many more victims who have not reported their abuse.

Questions must now be asked – If Lord Hope was the best-placed cleric to bring Waddington's crimes to light – how many other cases are there in the Church of England where incompetence or deliberate failure to carry out church policy on child protection has allowed child sex offenders in the church to escape detection or punishment, leaving more children at risk?

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has already ordered a review of the personnel files of every Anglican clergyman since 1950, diocese by diocese.

This review will also consider changes to the seal of the confessional, the tradition by which priests are bound to keep confessions secret, even if those confessions amount to unprosecuted criminal offences.

In Australia, the Anglican Church passed a new canon in July this year releasing priests from the requirement to keep confessions secret if they involve sexual abuse of children, except if the priest is reasonably satisfied the person has already reported to police.

In other positive signs, the Manchester Archbishop David Walker has praised the victims of Waddington for their courage in bringing Waddington's offences to light.

Judge Cahill made eight formal recommendations in her report, primarily removing child protection responsibilities from individual Dioceses.

Instead, she has recommended that the Church of England should approach child protection on a national basis, applying national policies uniformly in all dioceses, covering both current and historic cases and holding all records centrally.

If accepted by the national synod, a newly-formed National Child Protection service would have a full-time professional safeguarding officer whose decisions would be independent of church leaders.

In addition, dioceses would work together if cases involve victims or offenders in more than one diocese.

Child protection groups in dioceses must also have clear, written objectives, keep full and accurate reports and consist only of qualified and experienced members, Judge Cahill recommended.

In addition, clergy with pastoral oversight of an alleged offender would not also be responsible for dealing with allegations against the same person.