Birmingham, England, Nov 14, 2018 / 14:46 pm
An independent government inquiry is investigating how the Archdiocese of Birmingham handled allegations of child sexual abuse made against four priests.
Father John Tolkien, who died in 2003, allegedly abused a boy during Saturday morning "reading lessons" at the priest's home in 1970, and afterwards told the boy to keep the abuse a secret. Fr. Tolkien is the son of author and philologist J.R.R. Tolkien.
In addition, investigators reported Nov. 12 that they had found evidence that Fr. Tolkien had privately admitted to forcing a group of boy scouts to strip naked while on a camp-out in the 1950s, and may even have been sent for treatment. Allegations were eventually brought to the police in 1994 but no charges were filed.
An anonymous complainant who spoke during a hearing accused Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, who was Archbishop of Birmingham from 2000 to 2009, of seeking to cover up abuse perpetrated in the 1970s.