Review reveals monks’ cruel treatment of child sexual abuse victims

A safeguarding review has concluded that monks on a secluded island subjected child sexual abuse victims to heartless, hostile, and cruel treatment. According to one survivor, the treatment she experienced following her time on Caldey Island, located off Pembrokeshire, exacerbated the impact of the abuse “a million times worse”. The review indicated that numerous abuse allegations were made but were neither investigated nor reported to law enforcement, and this absence of intervention allowed a monk to abuse children for more than forty years “in plain sight”. Caldey Abbey commissioned this report, and its recently appointed abbot issued an apology for the pain and suffering that resulted. Rebecca resided on Caldey Island for the initial five and a half years of her life. A review stated that from the late 1960s through 1992, Father Thaddeus Kotik, a monk living on the island, sexually abused children who either lived there or visited. Rebecca is among 16 survivors who recounted their experiences to Jan Pickles, a consultant social worker commissioned by the abbey to author the review. Kotik reportedly groomed Rebecca and other children by offering sweets, chocolate, and various gifts. Subsequently, he would abuse them. Rebecca stated, “I tried to get away, but I couldn’t.” She added, “His hands were really rough and he was holding me too tightly. It hurt.” The island, along with all its properties, is situated off the coast near Tenby, a well-known seaside resort in south-west Wales. A community of Cistercian monks owns Caldey, which attracts tens of thousands of tourists annually. In addition to the monks, lay individuals also reside and work on the island. Rebecca reported that the abuse persisted throughout her stay on Caldey, with its consequences enduring for her entire life. During her teenage years, she experienced feelings of self-hatred and worthlessness, and struggled to form friendships. These feelings prompted her to engage in self-harm and make multiple suicide attempts. She commented, “I don’t know how I survived, it was terrible.” In adulthood, these experiences have impacted her capacity to work and to trust others. She stated that if not for her husband, she “probably wouldn’t be here”. In 2017, Rebecca was among six women who received a “meagre” compensation sum from the abbey through a civil claim, though no apology accompanied it. She described the payment as feeling like “hush money”. Rebecca further stated, “The many cover-ups over the years have made the effects of the abuse a million times worse.” She continued, “I felt re-victimised over and over again by the way we were all treated.” She elaborated, “You go back to feeling [like] that victim when you were a young child, helpless.” Jan Pickles, the report’s author, noted that the abbey’s response to victims, who were “very vulnerable and very damaged” by events “at the hands of a monk, part of its community,” was “heartless.” Rebecca commented that the review had “done justice to her truth” and, while the abbot’s apology was preferable to none, it arrived belatedly. She expressed, “Learning that the abuse went back as far as the 1960s makes me feel even more angry and upset, because how many times could they have done something about it?” She continued, “I don’t think they’re men of God. “They never have been, they don’t answer to anyone. It’s hypocrisy in the worst way. They’re living a lie.” Caldey Island was initially inhabited during the mid-Stone Age and has been home to monks since the 6th Century. Benedictine monks from the Pembrokeshire coast resided there during the Middle Ages, but its contemporary transformation commenced in the early 20th Century. Aelred Carlyle, also known as “druid Abbot,” established the current abbey and undertook the restoration of the Norman priory and St Illtyd’s church. However, after Carlyle’s order faced financial collapse and reverted to Catholicism in the 1920s, the island was sold to Belgian Trappist monks of the Cistercian order, who remain its inhabitants. The island’s website indicates that the monastic population “became dangerously low” in the early 1980s. Nevertheless, it states that the community subsequently started to expand once more. Despite this, the passing of older monks has resulted in numbers being “once more quite low.” The review highlighted multiple missed opportunities and suggested a perceived failure of leadership at the highest echelons. It noted that repeated and frequent allegations of sexual abuse against Kotik were not reported to the authorities, despite being required by the law of that era. Furthermore, the review stated that the “unnecessary adversarial response” caused additional harm to victims and their families. It concluded, “This strategy has led the abbey’s approach to be seen as hostile and cruel.” Two out of the three solicitors representing the victims characterized the responses from the abbey and its legal team as “the most hostile” they had encountered from any organization. The review revealed that one survivor faced threats of legal action, while another was labeled a “fantasist.” The review also mentioned that other sex offenders had resided on Caldey, including Paul Ashton, who lived there for seven years under an alias while evading police. He possessed unrestricted access to the IT system, which he utilized to download indecent images of children. A visitor who uncovered his real identity notified the police, leading to his subsequent imprisonment. The visitor suspected he had been running a distribution network for indecent images of children from the island, disguised as a cleaning company. Furthermore, the review detailed the inconsistent arrangements concerning tenancies and employment on the island. It noted that tenancies for abbey-owned homes were granted and revoked “for reasons unknown.” The review stated that the unstable conditions, decisions lacking accountability, and absence of formal rights “contributed to a dependence on the abbey’s goodwill.” This implied that residents might have been hesitant to take any actions that could jeopardize their housing or employment. Father Jan Rossey, who assumed the role of abbot last year, declared safeguarding as his current priority and confirmed he had implemented measures to guarantee appropriate responses to any allegations. He stated, “I give my sincere apologies.” He added, “I’m very sorry for all the suffering but also afterwards, for [victims] not being listened to. “It’s heartbreaking to read those stories.” The report presented 12 recommendations, which he affirmed would be fully implemented. Father Jan mentioned that improvements had already been enacted, such as safeguarding training for all island residents and mandatory DBS checks. Information and support organizations for victims of child sexual abuse can be found at bbc.co.uk/actionline. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content of external sites. Information regarding its approach to external linking is available.