Church in Wales facing scrutiny over long-held report not given to police for more than a decade

A LEAKED handwritten report has revealed that former Church in Wales bishop Anthony Pierce allegedly admitted sexually assaulting a teenage boy while he was still a parish priest – years before he was appointed Bishop of Swansea and Brecon.

Pierce, now eighty-four, is currently serving a four-year prison sentence handed down earlier this year for separate historic indecent assaults on another boy. The newly disclosed document, seen by the BBC, claims he confessed to what the report’s author described as a “criminal act” involving a fifteen-year-old.

The report, around twenty-five pages long, was written in early 1999, only months before Pierce was elevated to bishop. It was kept within the Church in Wales for eleven years before finally being handed to police in 2010, two years after Pierce stepped down. By that time, the alleged victim – referred to as Dean – had died.

Allegation raised twice before Pierce became bishop

According to lawyers acting for Dean’s family, his mother first raised concerns in 1993, making a formal complaint to the then Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, the Rt Rev Dewi Bridges. The leaked report states that it was after this complaint that Pierce admitted the incident to its author, who was a personal friend rather than an official investigator.

Dean’s mother raised the allegation again in January 1999, only weeks before the report was written and shortly before Pierce was chosen to succeed Bishop Bridges. Despite those warnings, there is no record of Pierce being disciplined.

Church officials say the document was not commissioned by them and will be examined fully as part of an ongoing review into how allegations were handled.

Derogatory comments about the victim

Lawyers for the family say the report paints a deeply unfair picture of Dean and appears designed to protect Pierce’s reputation. The document focuses heavily on the teenager’s personality and sexuality and describes him in disparaging terms. It suggests Pierce, then in his late forties, was “naive”, “confused” and somehow unable to resist the attention of a fifteen-year-old boy.

The report states that Pierce felt “intensely guilty” about what happened and feared losing his ministry if his behaviour became public. It also includes comments about how Dean had “broken through” Pierce’s emotional “barriers”.

A solicitor representing the family, David Greenwood, said the contents of the report had caused “immense distress”. He said similar attempts to discredit complainants were common in historic child abuse cases.

“It appears designed to undermine Dean’s credibility and discourage any further investigation,” he said. “It raises serious questions about whether individuals within the church were seeking to protect Pierce rather than the child.”

Church’s actions under renewed scrutiny

The Church in Wales said it passed the material to police again in 2016 as part of its submissions to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

A previous BBC investigation found that concerns about Pierce had reached senior clergy as early as the mid-1980s, although the church has no record of formal action being taken at the time.

In correspondence released to the BBC, one church employee said the report “should never have been written” using “highly confidential information” and “certainly should not have formed part of any decision-making process”.

Pierce declined to comment when contacted in prison.

The Church in Wales review into how Dean’s allegation was handled is expected to be published in the new year. Pierce is currently serving a sentence of four years and one month after admitting five counts of indecent assault against another child between 1985 and 1990.