Church of England settles historic abuse perpetrated by Reverend Terence King
The Abuse Department recently acted for a client who came forward wishing to bring a claim against the Church of England for the abuse she had suffered at the hands of Reverend Terence King, the Parish Priest of St Pauls, part of Castleford Team Parish in West Yorkshire.
Our client showed exceptional courage by reporting the abuse to her parents as a child. However she felt completely let down because they accepted King’s denials due to his statue in the community. King continue to have unsupervised access to children and continued to harass our client.
It now transpires King had abused a number of individuals from the 1970’s onwards as he moved from Parish to Parish.
The police began an investigation in 2002 after many victims had come forward, however King committed suicide on 31st October 2002 following his release on police bail before a conviction could be obtained.
Our client only learned King had died after researching her abuser on the internet in 2018, at this point she felt safe to report her abuse knowing he could no longer find her.
Our client had no conviction against King and was significantly out of time to bring her claim within the limitation period (3 year after reaching the age of 18 or the abuse ceasing, whichever is the latter). However, there were striking similarities between the evidence of our client and the evidence of the others abused by King. It was clear that the Church of England had failed to protect children from King, time and time again.
The Church of England accepted our client’s claim without the need to issue court proceeding and agreed to pay our client compensation. The abuse our client had suffered had never been acknowledged until this point and the civil action was to obtain recognition of the abuse she had suffered. The settlement also allowed her to go on to have the appropriate treatment she required.
