4 August 2019

Yesterday the BBC broadcast in its Sunday programme two significant interviews. The first was with Matt Ineson the abuse survivor whose courage has inspired us all. The second part was with Kate Blackwell QC whose experience of Reviews embraces both those around Hillsborough and the Gosport Hospital. She sets out clearly the legal principles that she believes should be part of every review process. By placing both these interviews on Surviving Church we hope to give them a degree of permanence. Anyone interested can refer back to see Matt’s testimony and the legal opinion of an experienced lawyer which impacts on the Church of England’s own safeguarding reviews in the future.

William Crawley          A survivor of clerical abuse says he will not take part in an independent review commissioned by the Church of England claiming the process is worse than useless. Matthew Ineson was 16 when he alleges he was raped by the Revd Trevor Devamanikkam in 1984. Mr Devamanikkam took his own life the day before his criminal trial was due to begin 2 years ago. The Church is proposing to hold a “lessons learned” review to identify both good practice and any failings in the Church’s handling of the allegations. It will also look at the actions taken by senior bishops, including the Archbishop of York, when Matthew disclosed what had happened to him. Matthew has waived his right to anonymity and he told me why he believes the Church of England’s review could not be truly independent

Matthew Ineson            Firstly the review itself is not, as the church keeps saying, independent. They’re doing it themselves. And they’ve told me that the review will go ahead even if I don’t participate, and I said ‘how could that happen?’ and they said ‘because we will do it ourselves from our own notes.’ So the very people who are being investigated write the terms of reference. They want to do it from their own notes and come up with their own version of it. In regards to being published, they said that they will decide what is published, when is published, as she says, I’ve got the review in front of me “the Director of Safeguarding will share the review with the National Safeguarding Steering Group and the Director will, in consultation with the lead bishop and the deputy director for Communications take all decisions regarding publication of the review.” So I’m not even given an input into that.

William Crawley          So what are you going to do now?

Matthew Ineson            We’re looking at establishing our own investigation inquiry to look at what has happened and invite the church to participate with us, work with us. I will sit down with anybody, and work with anybody, to get to what actually happened. Yes, people need to learn lessons, but there must also be transparency and accountability. You know, the Church I will happily work with. I hope they will work with me. It doesn’t seem to be that case at the moment.

William Crawley          But if you do that Matt, if you have your own review, than don’t you face the same issues that you raised for the Church that you wouldn’t be independent in doing that?

Matthew Ineson            Well I would use, and I’ve spoken to, totally independent people to do it. People who are not connected to the Church of England at all, don’t really know me at all, apart from an initial conversation, don’t know Mr Devamanikkam, totally independent people who are experts in this field. The church cannot do its own. It’s wanting to do its own homework, it’s wanted to mark its own homework and then say “Oh, we’ve learned lessons” and put it in the bottom drawer. I want it to be truly, truly independent.

William Crawley          Matt what’s been the effect of all of this for you personally, going through this rather bureaucratic process but at the centre of it is the story of appalling abuse which you have experienced?

Matthew Ineson            It’s been, if I’m honest, devastating in my life. It is now seven years since I first disclosed to the bishops and they ignored it. I’ve had to go through the rejection from the bishops, I’ve had to go through all the thing of them imposing a one year rule and refusing to investigate the abuse, I’ve had to go through — they even wrote to my abuser and asked my abuser if he thought he should be investigated or not. And then the whole bureaucracy I’ve had to put up with Bishops not being truthful, the impact upon me really has been devastating and I know from talking to other victims that it has the same impact. It changes life for ever. Justin Welby himself has described this as a form of reabuse and it never never ever goes away. I did say that when I’d been to IICSA that was it. I was done. I would go give my evidence and I needed my life back. And suddenly I’m drawn back in again, and the Church are trying to control me again. That has a massive impact on anybody’s life. It’s changed my life. In terms of practical things, I’ve lost my home, my living, my vocation, my everything, because of the Church.

 William Crawley         Matthew Ineson. No one from the Church of England was prepared to come on the programme this morning to respond to Matthew’s concerns, but a spokesperson from the National Safeguarding Team told us “all aspects of the case will be looked at and we are in ongoing contact with Matthew about his involvement and feedback. The report and the Church’s response will be published in full once it is completed.”

                                       So what is the best practice when you are holding an independent review? Kate Blackwell is a Manchester based QC who’s a regulatory expert and has served as counsel for two independent panels, including the inquiry into the care, treatment and deaths of patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Portsmouth. We asked Kate Blackwell to outline current best practice for all independent reviews.

Kate Blackwell QC       Well the starting point is to consider the purpose behind setting up an independent review, that something has gone wrong or someone has been wronged. And it’s a search for the truth to shed light on what has gone wrong both for the benefit of survivors of the tragedy and also for organisations to learn lessons. The duty of an independent review is to scrutinise often complex issues and recent inquiries such as the Hillsborough disaster and the deaths of patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital have demonstrated that this is best done by a panel of independent experts, each bringing levels of excellence from varying perspectives, examining the issues together, and in a way not before contemplated, in order to reach the truth. And it almost goes without saying that the panel or individual reviewer must have complete independence from any party who is involved. And any such review needs to be done as transparently as possible to engender faith amongst survivors that those conducting the review can be trusted and that the review (and its end product the report) have integrity. So there must be maximum possible possible public disclosure of documentation which should take place in a two stage process. First in terms of the provision of all relevant material to the inquiry by all relevant stakeholders, interested organisations, in order for the panel, the reviewer, to consider the widest possible range of relevant material, but thereafter ensuring the greatest level of onward disclosure upon publication of the report. And this means no redaction of any content of the published report except within limited legal frameworks. But the most important aspect perhaps of one of these types of independent reviews is the involvement of survivors from the outset. A principle that has come to be known as ‘family first’ or ‘survivors first.’ It’s imperative for the review to obtain and then maintain the confidence of the survivors.

William Crawley          Well what you’ve laid out there really is the best practice approach to a review. Given what you’ve seen of the terms of reference of this review and what you’ve heard from Matthew there about his very grave concerns about independence, do you think this church review meets the ambitions that you’ve just articulated?

Kate Blackwell QC       It’s very difficult to see how any of the strict and important principles which I have set out in best practice are achieved in either what I have seen in the terms of reference or what I have heard from Matthew’s complaint.

William Crawley          So you think this falls short of an independent review

Kate Blackwell QC       Yes, I do.

William Crawley          And you’ve also said it’s very important that the complainant the aggrieved parties in these kinds of reviews be involved in shaping the terms of reference. What would your advice be to the Church at this point, if you are concerned about the independence of the review they’ve established in fixing that?

Kate Blackwell QC       Given what Matthew has said it’s difficult to see how at this stage the church can turn back time, can really seek to engender any sort of faith or confidence that he may have in what they’re doing. However if they were to say “well we’re prepared to start from the very beginning again” and to seek Matthew’s engagement and to seek his consultation in terms of the identity of the reviewer (or a panel of reviewers) and to sit down with him and to meaningfully involve him in drafting the terms of reference, then he might be able to say that he’s prepared to engage in those circumstances. But unless he feels that he has faith and confidence going forwards that this is going to be an independent review, drafted in terms which are wide enough to cover the issues which he feels need to be addressed, then it’s, so far as he is concerned, not going to be close to successful.

William Crawley          That’s as far as he’s concerned. Already he’s already expressed his concerns about the review and he has no faith and confidence in it but given the best practice principles you’ve laid out for us is this review compromised?

Kate Blackwell QC       It’s compromised before it’s even started because it’s not being conducted by a truly independent reviewer, it’s not engaged with Matthew in any meaningful way, there is nothing within the terms of reference to ensure maximum possible public disclosure (either in terms of provision of material for the reviewer or indeed in terms of publication of the report) because although I understand from what I have heard today that the church indicates that there will be publication of the report the terms of reference also include a provision that before that publication takes place it will be considered by a member of the church who sits high up in the organisation in order for him to assess whether or not it will be published in an unredacted form (or not). And that’s simply not good enough.

William Crawley          We asked the Church of England for a response to Kate Blackwell’s very serious criticisms and they said the prospective reviewer is independent and they’re taking the review seriously.