Supplementary Statement from The Church in Wales on the case of Anthony Pierce
On February 7th, Anthony Pierce, who was Bishop of Swansea and Brecon from 1999 until 2008, appeared at Swansea Crown Court and admitted five counts of indecent assault on a male child under the age of 16. The offences date from between 1985 and 1990, when Mr Pierce was a parish priest in West Cross, Swansea. He has been remanded on bail and a provisional date of March 7th has been set for sentencing at Swansea Crown Court.
On the day of his court appearance, the Church in Wales issued the following statement: which said that the Church in Wales is appalled at the shocking offences that have been revealed in the case and which expressed the deepest sympathy with the victim for the abuse they have suffered.
The statement also made it clear that when the offences were reported to the church’s safeguarding team in 2023, they were passed straight to police, while the church also immediately began an internal investigation into the background to the case.
That investigation revealed that a separate allegation had been received about Mr Pierce in 1993 and had been known to a small number of senior figures in the Church but that this allegation had not been passed to Police until 2010. As a result, the church has commissioned an independent external review. The review began on the day Mr Pierce appeared in court, and its terms of reference were published in full on the Church in Wales’s website. They are available here. All of this information was placed in the public domain on February 7th.
Several inquiries have since been received relating to this case, and the information below is intended to address those questions:
How independent is the Review?
The identity of the reviewer was approved by the Chair of the Church in Wales Safeguarding Committee. As required by that Committee’s terms of reference, this is a person independent of the Church in Wales: “The Chair will be an independent lay person (independent means neither employed by nor discharging managerial functions in the Church in Wales) capable of ensuring that the committee’s functions are carried out effectively. The chair will have extensive professional safeguarding expertise in a relevant statutory, voluntary or judicial agency.”
The person conducting the review is totally independent of church structures and has no prior involvement with the Church in Wales.
How extensive is the Review?
This specific review has been established to investigate a particular matter of concern identified by the Church in Wales as needing external review. We do not preclude the need for further or expanded reviews in due course. The Terms of Reference make this clear: “If the Reviewer as part of her Review identifies matters beyond the scope of these terms of reference which may merit a further internal or independent investigation or review she is asked to raise the matter with the Provincial Secretary or the Representative Body’s Head of Legal Services so an extension to these terms of reference or a further review can be considered.”
Additionally, as in any case of this nature, a conviction and the surrounding publicity may lead to other people coming forward with disclosures and information. The Church in Wales will therefore need to liaise with its statutory partners in considering what further reviews would be appropriate.
Is a wider review of safeguarding necessary?
The Church in Wales, was a core participant and case study in the full-scale Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), whose report was published in 2022, and has made significant changes to its safeguarding policies and procedures to implement its recommendations. The disclosure now being externally reviewed was discovered in 2009/10 as part of a wide-ranging past cases review and referred to the police at that point. The case was subsequently disclosed to IICSA.
In accordance with IICSA recommendations, the Church in Wales safeguarding team is subject to an ongoing programme of external audit. While it is always necessary to ensure that safeguarding is working as well as possible, it is worth noting that the Church in Wales safeguarding procedures, revised following the IICSA recommendations, can be seen to be at work in the case leading to Mr Pierce’s conviction: the disclosure was immediately referred to police when it was reported in 2023; the church then began further inquiries into the background of the offender, which disclosed unresolved questions surrounding a further allegation; immediately upon conviction, a review was begun into that allegation and related issues, with the terms of reference and the Reviewer already in place; and these facts were immediately made public. Far from sweeping anything under the carpet, this demonstrates exactly the opposite – the existence of the disclosure now being reviewed would not be public knowledge had the Church in Wales not placed the information into the public domain.
The manner with which the disclosure was handled when it came to light in 2023 should give confidence that the Church is serious about dealing firmly and decisively with any such cases, and that our safeguarding policies and the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse are being implemented effectively. In respect of any further matters relating to Mr Pierce, our safeguarding team will receive and manage any further disclosures with the same professionalism and expertise they demonstrated in 2023 when the survivor in the criminal case made his disclosure to a Church in Wales safeguarding officer.
What will the Church do about Mr Pierce now the offences have been admitted?
The Church in Wales has already confirmed that Mr Pierce will be referred to its Disciplinary Tribunal. The Church has an accelerated process for post-conviction disciplinary matters, but this cannot commence until criminal conviction and sentencing has become conclusive and the window for lodging an appeal has expired (usually 28 days from sentencing). The process usually takes around three months.
In his pastoral letter to the diocese following the court case, the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, the Right Revd John Lomas, has made it clear that he will be asking the Tribunal to consider deposing Mr Pierce from Holy Orders, the most severe sanction available.
What was the reason for Mr Pierce’s permission to officiate being withdrawn in 2016?
The church’s safeguarding team made a fresh review of the paperwork in the light of updated safeguarding standards and decided to reconsider the matter in liaison with our statutory partners. We anticipate the review currently underway will comment further on this.
Do we support the calls for a Child Protection Agency for Wales whose responsibilities would include church safeguarding?
We would be supportive of anything that would improve the safeguarding of children in Wales.
The Church in Wales is determined to demonstrate that it is a safe place, and that anyone coming forward will have their concerns or disclosures taken seriously, treated with compassion, and taken forward according to the highest current standards. If our people and processes have failed victims and survivors of abuse in the past, we intend to take responsibility for that fact and to fully apply the lessons which have been learned.
There is no place for any form of abuse in the Church in Wales. We give the highest priority to the care and protection of children and vulnerable people in our communities. To this end we regularly review our safeguarding procedures and provide extensive training to staff and volunteers.
We encourage anyone with safeguarding concerns to contact a member of our team via the Church in Wales website: https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/safeguarding/reporting-safeguarding-concern/
Tel: 02920 348200
Alternatively, Safe Spaces is a free and independent support service, providing a confidential, personal and safe space for anyone who has been abused through their relationship with either the Church of England, the Catholic Church in England and Wales or the Church in Wales.