The Diocese of Durham has today published the report by Dr Stephanie Hill into the case of convicted sexual abuser Granville Gibson, formerly the Archdeacon of Auckland.
Statement by Bishop Paul Butler which explains why the report, completed in 2017, has been delayed in publication until now.
The full text of the report is here: Independent Report into the case of George Granville Gibson.
The diocesan responses to the recommendations in the report are tabulated here.
This report was written in 2017, but not published until now for good and proper legal reasons.
In that context, however, this article by John Sentamu hasn’t aged well. You might naively think that Sentamu would have had some interest in, and involvement in, safeguarding in Durham. Clearly not.
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/15-march/news/uk/dr-sentamu-pays-tribute-to-lord-habgood
I don’t think Sentamu was much interested in safeguarding in York Diocese, either.
Incidentally, his enthusiasm for the Act of Synod (see article cited above), and Habgood’s part in drafting it, doesn’t recommend either of them to me.
“Although the reviewer has
not seen the safeguarding records held by Durham Cathedral, she was
assured there are no safeguarding references to Mr Gibson held by them at
all” it also seems some of the Senior Staff minutes were not available either. Am I alone in thinking this is very unwise of the Cathedral / Bishop in such circumstances.
Unfortunately very similar to the York response to some of the Whitsey enquiry questions – the Archbishop has decided not to divulge to the Police any of the papers from the archive because he considers they are not relevant’ far too much trust placed in the authorities in both cases!
I note the report suggests that Mr Gibson’s abuse “was considered by some to be evidence of homosexuality”. Had his victims been female, presumably he would have been guilty of heterosexuality. Clearly one must be a worse crime than the other.
Yet another report highlighting the way in which the Church’s stance on homosexuality both fosters a culture of secrecy and also provides cover within which abusers can operate.
Another collection of red flags ignored and records mislaid. Very sad. Also, yet again, the point that
“These two very different issues i.e. consenting loving relationships between same-sex adults and the sexual abuse of children or young adults, become conflated as if they are similar and yet neither can be discussed. This creates opportunity, as men spending time with boys isn’t questioned in the same way that men spending time with teenage girls would be.”
It seems odd that the Bishop of Ely was not interviewed in person about Gibson but answered questions by email instead. Bishop Stephen Conway was variously the DDO, the Bishop’s Chaplain and then an Archdeacon in the Durham diocese, and apparently had been involved in handling some of the complaints. An interview would perhaps have been more illuminating than the ping pong of email correspondence.
I’m with Dave and Robert on this. It would be good to be assured that, for instance, the now ABC and other former Bishops of Durham had nothing to hide or deny. It doesn’t look good.