It’s not just the Catholic church that is more concerned to protect its own sweet self than it is to prevent child sexual abuse or help the victims of child sexual abuse.
An evangelist Christian preacher from East Sussex urged a victim of sexual abuse not to report the man responsible to the police, the BBC has learned.
Ian Jackson told Lina Barnes he would not support her if she reported that Gospel Hall Brethren preacher Allan Cundick assaulted her at the age of 12.
Mr Jackson, from Eastbourne, said he was only concerned for her progress.
But Ms Barnes, 33, who sought advice from him last year, said he wanted to protect the Church.
“Only concerned for her progress” – god that’s disgusting, not just treating her badly but also pretending to be a decent chap while doing it.
Ms Barnes, who has waived her anonymity, said: “I’d confided a lot in Ian Jackson about what I had suffered and here was this man now telling me that I just had to be merciful to my abuser, not to involve the police, and it just caused a lot of hurt, a lot of heartache.”
She added: “I believe he [Mr Jackson] didn’t want it getting out.”
Ms Barnes added: “In his email, he said to me it was important that Christians keep the testimony of the Church and therefore protect the institution.”
And not important that the institution do right by the people abused by its own employees.
Imagine if a restaurant served you food that made you sick, and then told you it was important that diners keep the testimony of the restaurant and therefore protect the institution. Sod the institution! What about the victim?
Last year, Ms Barnes told Mr Jackson she planned to report her abuser to the police.
But in an email on 24 May 2011, Mr Jackson wrote to her: “I am not prepared to give you any support in relation to the involvement of the police and court proceedings.
“I think it is a wrong decision that you have made.”
He said: “There is a better way. ‘Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.’”
So there should be no law enforcement at all, yeh? Just mercy all around, except of course for the people who get killed or beaten up or raped.