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1 month ago
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An abbey on a Welsh island where dozens of children were sexually abused by a monk over decades has promised to implement a string of safeguarding recommendations including strict limits on contact the members of the monastic community can have with visitors.
Monks on Caldey Island will not be allowed to give religious or pastoral advice to visitors even if asked or pose for a selfie with them, and under a “no touch” policy will be obliged to report any accidental physical contact.
The recommendations are included in a 73-page report that examines why Father Thaddeus Kotik was able in “plain sight” to groom, rape and sexually assault boys and girls on the island, which is home to a community of Cistercian monks and a popular destination for day trippers.
It also looks at how four other men accused or convicted of sexual offences were able to live on the island off the Pembrokeshire coast.
Kevin O’Connell, the founder of the Caldey Island Survivors Campaign, said that as the recommendations were not legally binding he felt the review did not go far enough.
He said survivors needed to play a big part in the safeguarding of people on the island. “It’s only survivors of sexual abuse who can see the dangers in plain sight that others are blind to,” he said.
On Tuesday the current abbot of Caldey, Father Jan Rossey, apologised for the abuse and its cover-up, which was revealed by the Guardian in 2017.
He said: “It is with deep sorrow and regret that I have read in the review of the great suffering of children who were abused by Father Thaddeus Kotik and the closed culture of secrecy and cover-up which kept this hidden.
“It is clear opportunities were missed to stop the abuse of children. It is particularly heartbreaking to hear children spoke up to adults and no action was taken. Children and their families were failed when they should have been supported and listened to. The abuses should have been reported to the statutory authorities.
“On behalf of the monastic community, I sincerely apologise to all those who have been hurt and have suffered because of the abuse of Thaddeus Kotik and past failures in not protecting children and their families. It is particularly odious when abuse is committed and hidden by people who are in positions of trust because of their monastic or priestly vocation.”
He said that since becoming abbot in 2023 he had been determined to create “a culture of openness and transparency”.
Earlier this year Rossey commissioned an independent review, led by Jan Pickles, a former assistant police and crime commissioner for south Wales, into historical claims of child abuse on the island.
During the review, 20 victims of child sexual abuse were identified. Caldey Island Survivors Campaign told Pickles it had been approached by 55 victims – and believes there are others who have not yet come forward.
Pickles concluded that Kotik, who died in 1992, operated in “plain sight” and there was “a failure of leadership at the highest level within the order and abbey”.
Her recommendations include that “all informal contact” between monks and visitors should stop. She said it would seem to be “of mutual advantage” that selfies were halted.
Pickles also said survivors should sit on the island board and a clear “no touch” policy be brought in. She said: “Any accidental physical contact must be declared by the individual concerned and recorded within the day it occurred. This record should be reviewed as outlined above and any patterns identified and acted on.”
Maria Battle, formerly the deputy children’s commissioner for Wales and chair of the safeguarding subcommittee for Caldey, said the recommendations would all be implemented. She said they would be overseen by the subcommittee with survivors scrutinising the implementation.
Rossey’s predecessor as abbot, Daniel van Santvoort, is criticised in the report over how he responded to revelations of sexual abuse – but still lives on the island.
A Q&A released by the abbey says: “The former abbot fully and absolutely acknowledges his failings and mistakes in the past. He is still a monk and a priest – those are vows made for life – but he is no longer in a position of authority in the community or on the island.”
