Downside School - Child Abuse

Child Abuse

In 2004, a Benedictine monk was jailed for 18 months after taking indecent images of schoolboys and possessing child pornography when he was a teacher at Downside.

In January 2012, Father Richard White, a monk who formerly taught at the school, was jailed for five years for gross indecency and indecent assault against a pupil in the late 1980s. White, 66, who was known to pupils as Father Nick, had been allowed to continue teaching after he was first caught abusing a child in 1987 and was able to go on to groom and assault another pupil in the junior school. He was placed on a restricted ministry after the second incident but was not arrested until 2010. Two other Downside monks, also former teachers, received police cautions during an 18-month criminal trial.

Department for Education officials were said to be taking an urgent interest in child protection arrangements at the school. Inspection reports refer specifically to seven monks who have worked at the school at different times and whose behaviour has been “a cause for concern”. The Independent Schools Inspectorate had previously criticised a lack of urgency in making improvements to child protection. The Charity Commission has also sent a compliance team to work with the school on this, which it is treating as “a high-risk case”. The Abbot responded by apologising to parents and reported that 50 years of confidential school records indicated that four of the monks had faced police action, two had restrictions imposed on them, and one was cleared and returned to monastic life. A review of school governance was already taking place.