Priest admitted assaulting boy before being made bishop
A former Church in Wales bishop is said to have admitted sexually assaulting a teenage boy, according to a report seen by the BBC.
Anthony Pierce, who earlier this year was , allegedly confessed to the report author what is described as a "criminal offence" while he was a parish priest.
The document was written months before he became Bishop of Swansea and Brecon in 1999 and the church held the report - which Pierce asked a "friend" to write - for 11 years before passing it to police.
The handwritten 25-page document said the abuse happened in 1990 and stated Pierce, who is now 84, felt "intensely guilty" and "could not escape the reality that he was an adult" while the victim was a child.
"He was frightened of his own shame being made public, and of losing his ministry," the report reads.
The report was written in February 1999, just two months before Pierce became Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, one of the Church in Wales' most senior positions.
We're calling his alleged victim Dean to protect his identity. Dean - who has since died - attended Pierce's old church near Swansea in south Wales.
The report goes on to claim Pierce - a priest in his late 40s at the time - was "naive" and "had no defence" against 15-year-old Dean, who is described in the report as "mercurial" and "very attractive".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g4321yk44o
A former Church in Wales bishop is said to have admitted sexually assaulting a teenage boy, according to a report seen by the BBC.
Anthony Pierce, who earlier this year was , allegedly confessed to the report author what is described as a "criminal offence" while he was a parish priest.
The document was written months before he became Bishop of Swansea and Brecon in 1999 and the church held the report - which Pierce asked a "friend" to write - for 11 years before passing it to police.
The handwritten 25-page document said the abuse happened in 1990 and stated Pierce, who is now 84, felt "intensely guilty" and "could not escape the reality that he was an adult" while the victim was a child.
"He was frightened of his own shame being made public, and of losing his ministry," the report reads.
The report was written in February 1999, just two months before Pierce became Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, one of the Church in Wales' most senior positions.
We're calling his alleged victim Dean to protect his identity. Dean - who has since died - attended Pierce's old church near Swansea in south Wales.
The report goes on to claim Pierce - a priest in his late 40s at the time - was "naive" and "had no defence" against 15-year-old Dean, who is described in the report as "mercurial" and "very attractive".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g4321yk44o
The meek shall inherit the Earth, the rest of us will fly to the stars.
Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups
Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in mud ..... after a while you realise that the pig likes it!
Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups
Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in mud ..... after a while you realise that the pig likes it!
