An independent review into historical child sex abuse claims on Caldey Island has revealed that a monk was able to rape children and subject them to great suffering for four decades, despite operating in “plain sight” a damning report has concluded.

Dozens of people claimed they were sexually abused by a monk - Father Thaddeus Kotik whilst he was living on the island off Tenby.

Father Kotik died in 1992 without facing any criminal charges into allegations he abused children between 1977 and 1982.

Six of his alleged victims were compensated by Caldey Abbey in an out-of-court settlement in 2017.

He died in 1992 without being interviewed, charged or convicted of any of his alleged crimes. He is buried in St David’s cemetery on Caldey.

The inquiry announced by the new superior at Caldey Island Abbey, Father Jan Rossey back in April of this year, has been led by Jan Pickles OBE, former Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner at South Wales Police.

Former Deputy Children's Commissioner for Wales, Maria Battle, who earlier this year left her role as Chief Executive of the Hywel Dda University Health Board, was appointed as the safeguarding lead for the inquiry.

Jan Pickles’ review revealed that the these allegations date back from the late 1960s to 1992. They have been made by a group of victims who had all experienced abuse on Caldey Island as children. Some children lived with their families on the Island, others were visitors, some came every year for several years, others only once or twice.

They were often brought by parents or with parish groups from the mainland. Some had reported these allegations at the time, either to their parents who then usually, but not in all cases reported them to the Abbey, Carmarthenshire Police and priests in their home parish if they were visitors.

In some cases, victims who were not satisfied with the responses they had received, repeated their complaints several times. Few received responses they found to be satisfactory either at the time as children, nor as adults, years later.

This present Review has been undertaken largely due to the courage and determination of the ‘Caldey Survivors Group ’- adults who had as children stayed on the island either as visitors or as residents with their family and were there sexually abused.

As a group they have made plain to both the Abbey and the local community that the responses to their claims of sexual abuse over the years had lacked compassion and were felt to be derisory.

During the course of the review, twenty victims of child sexual abuse were identified, two victims were not approached due to concerns for their wellbeing expressed by family members, and one who had reported their experience of abuse earlier did not approach the Review. In total seventeen victims have come forward to the Review.

However, one person was considered not to be a credible witness having made similar claims to other inquiries and agencies and providing a description of the island which did not reflect the reality at the time or now.

Father Thaddeus Kotik, was known to victims on Caldey Island as ‘Father Thadd’ and was according to his own account, which was retold over many years, a former soldier who had fought in the Free Polish Army during the Second World War.

He stated that he had moved to the Island in September 1947 after making his own way to the UK.

The first allegation of abuse was reported by Caldey Abbey in May 2014 when the Abbot Father Daniel informed Dyfed Powys Police of the likelihood of a civil litigation being made against the Monastery at Caldey in relation to Father Thadd.

This report was in the form of a forwarded email from a victim that had been sent to the Abbot without the victim’s permission or knowledge.

Dyfed-Powys Police responded by initiating an inquiry and found that as the alleged perpetrator had died in 1992, it was not possible to proceed to prosecution. A total of six complainants were identified by the investigation team.

It was established that the victim had made a disclosure of the abuse to Father Daniel in 2010; and disclosed they had written in 1991 to the then Abbot, Father Robert, in relation to this complaint a year before Father Thadd died.

Dyfed Powys Police’s investigation team visited Caldey Island in 2014, and a search of the archives did not yield any further evidence, nor a copy of the letter sent to Father Daniel in 2010 regarding the alleged abuse.

Dyfed Powys Police concluded that no prosecution could be undertaken due to Father Thadd being deceased. In addition, there was no evidence to suggest that any other victims had experienced abuse from Father Thadd, nor was there felt to be any ongoing risks of harm to others.

Following the settling of the civil litigation and the outcome being widely publicised in the media, other complainants came forward with further allegations concerning Father Thadd which led to widening the investigation under ‘Operation Slate’.

During this operation, officers again attended the Island to review the monastery’s archived records.

In 2013 Abbot Daniel was approached by the Diocese of Menevia as were all Orders within the area offering that they take over responsibility for the safeguarding arrangements within Caldey Island. There was no response to this by Caldey Abbey.

Then in July 2016 when Caldey Abbey was already reaching a settlement with six victims of CSA did agree terms for Menevia to take over responsibility for the Abbey’s safeguarding responsibilities and a contract was signed between the Diocese of Menevia and the Order.

At that time the existing Island accountant was appointed as Safeguarding Lead, an ex-Police Officer, and he took up post on the 15th of August 2016.

Victim testimonies from the 1970’s suggest Father Thadd to have been a serial and prolific abuser of children, often in ‘plain sight’ of others.

The victims describe being taken by him to beaches, woods, gardens, an old container or building which had fallen into disrepair and waiting for them leaving school. Some describe being sexually abused several times a day in the summer months.

A visitor to the Island described seeing Father Thadd making a “bee line” for them as they arrived from the mainland and carrying a five year old girl around the island and being challenged by islanders to put the child down.

Father Thadd’s interest in children was not hidden from view, and it appears to have been tolerated by adults on the Island.

Father Daniel was known to have expressed concern about Father Thadd’s contact with families on the Island before he became Abbot and had raised this with Abbot Robert.

One witness - a teenager in the 1970s and some years older than the victims, described Father Thadd as - “creepy and instinctively kept away from him. He presented with a childlike manner of speaking, but I felt this was disingenuous as he could hold an in depth theological discussion. To my mind he was more a Michael Jackson type than Jimmy Saville. From about the mid-70s he worked in the dairy and would give gifts such as yogurts to children and families. I believe this made some families and children feel special by his attention and gifts.”

One victim stated that as a child he had told his parish priest - Father Higham (now deceased) in the confessional of his abuse at Father Thadd’s hands. Father Higham was the parish priest at his local church from 1972 until 2004, passing away a year later in 2005.

Father Higham warned him very forcefully that he should not repeat what he said to anyone and that if he were to tell anyone of his abuse that ‘he would suffer terrible punishment and be sent to Hell.’

Further allegations from one witness said that he had been visiting his family on the Island and whilst there he fell asleep in the Mansion garden next to the Old Priory and he awoke to see Father Thadd kissing one victim on her face whilst sexually abusing her with his hand in her pants, stating: “He was kissing her around her face and on her lips, totally inappropriately and way over the top for a responsible adult. Part of his hand was under her pants fondling her bottom. I am absolutely clear about that.”

In 2016 six women made a collective legal claim stating that Father Thadd had sexually abused them between 1971 and 1987, they all described a similar pattern of behaviour in which he befriended certain families living on the island that he saw regularly and groomed and sexually assaulted the girls in a number of favoured locations he always used the dairy, which was relatively isolated and was where he worked, in secluded woods and coves which he knew well, and when babysitting for their parents in their homes.

Another victim has stated that when aged 10 years old, he and one of his sisters again were sent to Caldey by his parish church, this time for longer than a week. On landing at the harbour at Caldey he was met by Father Thadd who would take him to the ruins, before he started ‘hugging and kissing me’.

“His hands were all over me. Kissing me know on the cheeks. I started to feel odd and a bit scared and wanted to go back to the group. Things felt different now and I asked Father Thadd to take me back to the beach, but he would not take me, and I was afraid to say much to him.

“It scared me badly and affected me all my life. When Father Thadd took me back to the group, I was crying but no one seemed to care or ask me anything. During the third and last visit I was met by Father Thadd, and he would come and get me from the group but now I was older and a bit weary, but I was scared not to go. I feared if I said no, I would be in trouble not just with him but everyone.”

“We spent time in the ruins hugging and kissing on his lap. Kissing me on my cheek and rubbing my upper legs I felt trapped, and time now seemed for. ever. I wanted to run away and hide. Father Thadd knew I was easy prey. Some days I would try and hide hoping he (had) not seen me and choose some other boy or girl. It worked some days. He tried to take my younger brother, but I would go instead.”

The review concluded that there appears to have been a failure of leadership at the highest level within the Order and Abbey; with serious matters of repeated and frequent allegations of child sexual abuse by Father Thadd - not reported to the statutory authorities as the law of that time required.

Poor record keeping and an absence of the identification and management of risk appears to have been the hallmark of the Abbey until recent years, as demonstrated following a recent allegation in 2017 of a non-recent rape by a visiting Irish priest or monk.

This allegation was investigated by Dyfed Powys Police, during which the then Caldey Island Safeguarding Lead admitted that due to the lack of records being kept of monks and others that had visited the Island it was not possible to identify either the monk or who had been resident on the island at that time, which encumbered the investigation.

The review found that there was a history of the Abbey failing to follow UK Safeguarding Legislation. There was no evidence available to the Review that indicated there was any governance or oversight provided from within the organisation regarding this. The new safeguarding arrangements are listed below but are in their infancy and are yet to be embedded in the longer term.

The Review identified an example in which the Abbey representatives in the past agreed to embed safeguarding arrangements and then did not.

This has been presented to the Review as having been caused by incompetence and naivety on the Abbey’s behalf.

To evidence this fundamental change that the Abbey will and does adhere to Safeguarding legislation and guidance requires rigorous long term oversight by the Local Authority which the Reviewer suggests must be put in place.

Following the review, Father Rossey the Abbot of Caldey released the following statement: “It is with deep sorrow and regret that I have read in the review of the great suffering of children who were abused by Father Thaddeus Kotik and the closed culture of secrecy and cover-up which kept this hidden.

“It is clear opportunities were missed to stop the abuse of children. It is particularly heartbreaking to hear children spoke up to adults and no action was taken.

“Children and their families were failed when they should have been supported and listened to. The abuses should have been reported to the statutory authorities.

“On behalf of the monastic community, I sincerely apologise to all those who have been hurt and have suffered because of the abuse of Thaddeus Kotik and past failures in not protecting children and their families. It is particularly odious when abuse is committed and hidden by people who are in positions of trust because of their monastic or priestly vocation.

“Since becoming the new Abbot on Caldey Island in 2023 I have been determined to create a culture of openness and transparency. I want to take ownership and responsibility for past failings. I want to ensure we learn lessons from the mistakes in the past and create a safer environment for everyone,” he continued.

“It is for these reasons that I commissioned an independent review into historical claims of child abuse on the island.

“The first step to healing is listening. It is important that those who may have been harmed in any way have a voice and are heard.

“Since becoming Abbot, I have ensured that many safeguarding improvements have been put in place. These are detailed in the review.

“I have also reached out through Jan Pickles OBE to everyone who gave evidence offering to meet with them in person to apologise, to offer support and to thank them for their courage.

“I thank everyone who bravely came forward to give evidence of their experience to the Review and I promise that I will do my utmost to prevent abuse from ever happening again on Caldey Island,” he added.