After Alice reported the man who sexually abused her, he was left free to abuse other children for 25 years
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Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Alice was sexually abused by a vicar who exploited her family’s vulnerability.
She says she was badly let down by the police and other authorities when her allegations were investigated.
Alice's parents separated soon after she was born and her mother, who had a disability, was left to bring up her three children alone.
She says ‘We were quite a dysfunctional family … things were very hard, my brother was angry because of the split and my dad wasn’t on the scene’.
The family moved to council accommodation in another part of the country. Alice’s mum was put in contact with a vicar called Len, who specialised in working with people with her disability.
He befriended the family and offered to give Alice’s mum a break by taking her children out for day trips. Alice says ‘There was lots going on, my mum took the refuge that Len gave quite willingly’.
One day, Len took Alice out on her own, saying that his wife and children were keen to see her. But when they got to his house there was no one there. Len told Alice that because she didn’t have a father, he was going to teach her the facts of life. He warned her not to tell her mother as it might upset her because Alice didn’t have a father in her life.
Alice was eight years old, and she didn’t question what Len said because he was a vicar and she knew her mum trusted him for this reason.
Len sexually abused Alice, and he continued to do this several times in his home over the following five years. He bathed her, touched her, made her masturbate him and put his penis between her legs. Sometimes he made her look at pornography.
After he abused Alice, he told her to lie to her mum and say that she had seen his wife and children.
Len’s daughter, who was about the same age as Alice, was in the house once when Alice was there. He made them bathe together and abused Alice in front of his daughter. Afterwards, the daughter told Alice that her father sexually abused her too.
When Alice was 11 she had a lesson at school about ‘stranger danger’ and she began to understand that what Len was doing to her was wrong. But, she adds, ‘I didn’t know what to do with it, and he wasn’t a stranger’.
Len attempted to get Alice to groom another girl so he could abuse her. She recalls ‘He was coaching me into what he wanted me to do to make this other kid feel relaxed’. But before Alice met the girl, her older sister told their mother that she thought Len was abusing Alice, and the police became involved.
Alice feels the police handled the investigation very badly and insensitively. It emerged that Len had also abused Alice’s sister and they took statements from both girls without explaining anything to them or building a rapport.
Alice did not hear from the officers again. She says ‘They took my statement, signed it, and they went and I never saw them again … I was deemed competent enough to give a statement but not competent enough to be told things’.
The police did contact her school about the investigation, without warning her, and she was embarrassed when she was called out of a lesson to see a child welfare officer.
Police officers also visited a shop where Alice had a job, and spoke to her in front of the staff, which she found highly embarrassing and very difficult to explain.
Alice and her brother were placed on the child protection register and one evening, a male worker from a children’s charity took her on her own to an empty house which was used as a day centre.
She recalls how alarming this was for her. ‘It was a carbon copy of what used to happen when Len used to come and get me.’ She was told this meeting was to arrange support in the future, but she never heard from the charity again.
Len was charged but the case did not proceed. Because Alice and her sister gave their statements together, it was decided the integrity of their evidence was compromised.
It was also said that Alice was considered an unreliable witness because she made a mistake about a detail that was not related to the abuse.
Alice believes that she and her sister were not believed because of her family’s social standing. ‘We were council house kids and he was a vicar’ she says.
The family applied for criminal injuries compensation but their application was refused. Alice’s mother appealed and Alice vividly recalls a man on the panel saying to her ‘Wouldn’t it be easier to just forget it and live your life?’
Alice eventually received some compensation. The money was no comfort to Alice; she says she shared it with her family and wasted what was left.
Some years later, Alice discovered Len had been charged with new allegations of sexual abuse. She contacted the Church of England and the police, hoping she could be part of the prosecution case against Len. Both institutions told her they had lost the files relating to her allegations.
She attended the trial and Len was convicted and later excommunicated by the church. Alice felt cheated that her voice had not been heard and that Len had been free to abuse other children in the 25 years since she had reported him.
The abuse Alice suffered as a child has had a significant impact on her life. She feels shame, and suffers with depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and lack of confidence. She finds sexual intimacy difficult and she says ‘I’m useless at relationships’. Her family relationships were also fractured.
She says ‘I lost my childhood, my innocence went at eight. I wasn’t able to discover anything myself … I am still looking for that missing piece’.
Alice feels strongly that the police who dealt with her case should have been more professional, and they should receive training in how to treat victims and survivors of abuse with sensitivity.
She emphasises that victims and survivors should be kept informed and adds that the process of claiming compensation should be made simpler and child-friendly.
Alice says that seeing Len convicted and knowing he is now a registered sex offender has brought her some sense of closure. But she concludes ‘What I can’t move on from is the fact that we’ve not had justice and we’ve been treated with such disdain by the police and the Church of England … there is no recognition that we’ve been failed’.