Methodist Church in Ireland's 'sense of shame' over abuse cases

There is sorrow and a "sense of shame" within the Methodist Church in Ireland after a review identified 30 historic abuses cases, its president has said.

The Reverend David Turtle was speaking two days after the Church published the findings of its three-year review into how it dealt with abuse allegations.

The report examined Methodist records from 1950 onwards and found six abuse cases involved ordained ministers.

Most of the 30 cases were allegations against lay volunteer leaders.

In three cases, the people accused of abuse were lay employees of the Methodist Church.

The allegations ranged from physical violence and sexual abuse to "inappropriate relationships" with teenagers and improper use of social media.

'We have caused pain'

Although the review spanned a period of more than 70 years, the report said the "overwhelming majority" of recorded cases date from 1998 onwards.

"I think I speak for all Methodists, that we approach this with a sense of real sorrow, a sense of shame and a sense that we have failed," the Rev Turtle told BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence programme.

"And whilst many people may feel that that's not a huge number of cases, if even there was just one case, we still would have approached it in the same way and we acknowledge that we have failed to protect those that we should have protected."

The findings of the review were published a day after Mr Turtle was installed as president of the Methodist Church in Ireland to serve a one-year term from 2023-24.

The Christian denomination has about 50,000 throughout the island of Ireland, with most of its members and churches based in Northern Ireland.

The Church began its review of its internal safeguarding procedures in 2020, a process which involved contacting its past and present ministers and lay employees to request records and information about abuse allegations.

Friday's report stated that the organisation "apologises without reserve to all those who have been victims of abuse in the life of our Church".

"Our processes that were designed to protect all have not done that. We have caused pain that goes beyond measure," it added.

Even though some of the 30 cases included apparent criminal allegations such as physical violence and sexual abuse, the report stated that not all of the accusations resulted in police action.

When asked about this, the Rev Turtle said the police and statutory authorities on both sides of the border were informed in all cases where "there was any risk of laws being broken".

"I think we've laid out that there were a number of cases where there was police action, but in the vast majority of cases there wasn't thought to be the weight of evidence to carry that forward."

Missing documentation

The Methodist president explained that he had not reviewed the cases personally and did not know the details of individual allegations or the number of people who had been prosecuted.

Only two people - the chair and the vice chair of the past cases review team - were given full access to the records in order "to maintain confidentiality for the victims".

For their part, the review team did not disclose details of any specific abuse allegations, but said some involved "inappropriate relationships between young adult leaders and teenage participants".

Their review concluded that the Church's historic record keeping "has been weak with missing documentation and imprecise records".

They said they had found "examples where it is not clear when an actual allegation has been made, who has made it, how is it addressed and resolved and what is the precise outcome".

Their review noted that the Church in the process of implementing a system for the holding of personnel files on all ministers and lay employees.

Their final report recommended significant improvements to record-keeping and further training on safeguarding processes.

The Church's new president is a married father of four, originally from Stewartstown in County Tyrone.

He grew up in a farming family and studied agriculture at Queen's University Belfast.

He later studied at Edgehill Theological College in the city and was a lay preacher in County Tyrone before he took up ministerial positions in Ballynahinch and Lisburn.

The Rev Turtle told the programme he was "very conscious" of the falling numbers of Methodists within Ireland, despite the movement's continued expansion worldwide.

He said his Church had "established a working party on growth" and was activity examining ways to increase its youth membership across Ireland.