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Priest thought to pose risk to children is paid off
The Church of England made a six-figure pay-off to a priest assessed as a potential risk to children and young people, a BBC investigation has found.
A senior member of staff at Blackburn Cathedral resigned over the settlement and says concerns about the priest were “an open secret” among senior clergy.
Canon Andrew Hindley - who worked in Blackburn diocese from 1991 to 2021 - was subject to five police investigations, including into allegations of sexual assault.
He has never been charged with any criminal offences and says he has never presented any safeguarding risk to anyone.
The archbishops of Canterbury and York have told the BBC they are “still working” to get Church processes right and “must learn” from past mistakes.
The former Bishop of Blackburn Julian Henderson described the financial settlement when he was in post as the “only option” left for the Church “to protect children and vulnerable young people from the risk Canon Hindley posed”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv2gj77pvwwo
Comments
I don't know whether or not this man is a risk to young boys.
What I do know is that his employer spent a long time telling everyone in earshot that he was. And not being able to prove any of it.
Which is spectacularly unwise.
Imagine for a second your employer told everyone in earshot you were a paedophile. Spent years trashing your reputation. Think you might want a big lump of cash as payback?
The Church has clearly been told that the best (or more accurately, least worst) option was to pay him off.
Now imagine that at the same time you receive a big lump of cash for being pilloried in this way, various of the people involved think it right and proper to stick the knife in again. Repeating the exact same stuff they couldn't prove before. With 2.4 million reasons already to show why that was a stupid course of action. In public. Which leads me to 2 conclusions:-
1. This man will now be after even more money; and
2. The Church feels able to act rather differently to Employers who have to spend their own money...