A survivor of child sexual abuse who says she was re-traumatised by the way her case was handled by Cardinal Vincent Nichols and the Diocese of Westminster has begun her legal action against them for personal injury.
The woman, now in her fifties and known at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) as A711, was first abused when she was 15 by a Servite Order priest and later raped by him. But she has maintained that her distress was made far worse by the way in which the Diocese of Westminster and its archbishop, Cardinal Nichols, dealt with her later requests for access to information it held about her.
Her legal team have spent months assembling evidence, including psychiatric reports, about the distress she has experienced. The diocese has three months in which to respond.
When A711 asked to see documents relating to her case, diocesan staff emails came to light that dismissed her as needy and manipulative while one revealed that the cardinal confirmed he would not be sending a further reply to her requests for help. A711 said: “It is not enough for Cardinal Nichols to say he is sorry when there is no change in how victims are treated. After the IICSA hearings I had cause to go back to him and there was no change in approach. There were long delays in response to my emails and I was passed on to other people.”
Her lawyer, Richard Scorer, of Slater and Gordon, said that his client was owed a duty of care as an abuse victim by the diocese but its behaviour has caused her further harm. He said that Cardinal Nichols had “presided over a dysfunctional safeguarding operation in his own backyard”.
A spokesman for Cardinal Nichols said: “The cardinal apologised to A711 in person when he met her in April 2019, and subsequently in a letter to her. As A711 is now seeking civil redress, the matter is in the hands of legal representatives, so no further comment is appropriate at this stage.”
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