Former bishop and vicar under police scrutiny as victims speak out

A FORMER senior bishop and a former vicar in the Church in Wales are under police investigation following fresh allegations of historic sexual abuse, The Herald can reveal.

Anthony Pierce, the former Bishop of Swansea and Brecon who was jailed earlier this year for indecent assaults on a child, is now facing further claims dating back decades. South Wales Police have confirmed they are investigating both Pierce and another former cleric.

The Church in Wales has issued a statement apologising “unreservedly” to victims, acknowledging “failings” in how allegations were handled in the past. It follows multiple public accounts from survivors who say their reports were ignored or mishandled.

Concerns about Pierce’s conduct were reportedly raised with Church officials as early as 1986—thirteen years before he was made bishop. One alleged victim, Alisdair Adams, who was a student in Swansea in the 1980s, claims he was assaulted after being invited to Pierce’s home under the pretence of discussing chaplaincy work. He says the Church failed to act when the matter was reported.

Another man, Mark Dickey-Collas, described similar conduct and said he too was invited to Pierce’s home, where he was offered alcohol before the bishop allegedly made sexual advances.

The Church in Wales says it has no record of these reports but is now reviewing its response at the time. Pierce, who served as chaplain at Singleton Hospital and was later appointed bishop in 1999, was sentenced in March to four years and one month in prison after admitting five charges of indecent assault on a boy under 16, carried out between 1985 and 1990.

In a separate account, a woman using the pseudonym Ruth says she was sexually assaulted by Brecon Cathedral’s former choirmaster David Gedge in 2001 when she was 17. She alleges that Bishop Pierce failed to act when the matter was brought to his attention in 2003. Gedge, who died in 2016, continued to work with children for another four years after the incident was reported.

Ruth told The Herald: “He didn’t assault me, but he enabled the man who did to stay in post and possibly hurt others. There was no accountability.”

The Church has confirmed there was no recorded disciplinary action taken at the time. An internal review is now underway into how the Church handled such allegations under Pierce’s leadership.

Other safeguarding failures have also come to light.

The Reverend Graham Sawyer, a former priest of the Church in Wales, raised concerns in 2002 about a youth leader in Pontypool, but says his warnings were ignored. He claims he was warned not to pursue the matter or risk legal consequences. That youth leader, Darren Jenkins, was later jailed in 2006 for the rape of a 16-year-old boy.

Mr Sawyer, who is himself a survivor of clergy abuse, has written to members of the Senedd calling for an independent inquiry into the Church in Wales’s safeguarding culture. He said: “Whenever concerns were raised, they were either ignored or met with hostility. The Church closed ranks.”

The calls for an inquiry come after a number of high-profile safeguarding scandals within the Church. Just last month, the Archbishop of Wales retired following critical reports into his former diocese in Bangor, which highlighted blurred boundaries and a toxic internal culture, including heavy drinking among senior figures.

An independent panel member from the UK’s child sex abuse inquiry has now questioned whether the Church in Wales has done enough to implement reforms since earlier reviews.

Professor Sir Malcolm Evans, who helped lead that inquiry, said: “The Church in Wales needs to engage in serious reflection and undertake robust, external scrutiny.”

The Church has now pledged a full cultural review and safeguarding audit across all Welsh cathedrals. A spokesperson said: “There is no place in the Church for abuse, misconduct, or concealment. We are determined to rebuild trust and ensure the Church is a safe place for all.”

Correction:

In an earlier version of this article, we referred to The Reverend Graham Sawyer as a “former priest.” We would like to clarify that Mr Sawyer is a former priest of the Church in Wales, but he has not resigned his Orders nor been defrocked — Editor, The Pembrokeshire Herald.