Eleven men who trained for the priesthood at a Yorkshire seminary have
recently settled their claims of sexual abuse with the Catholic order
that ran it. In the latest in our series on boarding-school abuse,
Catherine Deveney hears of their decades-long struggle for justice and
the damage done
The face looming towards the rent boy in the London station was familiar. A face from his past: Father John Pinkman. No punter would have guessed that the rent boy had once wanted to be a priest, too. He had spent several years at Mirfield Junior Seminary in Yorkshire which was run by the Verona Fathers, an Italian missionary order. Pinkman had abused him there, was part of the degradation that led to this place, this life. The priest disappeared into the crowd, then reappeared, highlighted by light glinting off his spectacles. The rent boy caught his eye. Pinkman looked hesitant, embarrassed, then boarded a train without speaking. The last, silent goodbye.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/19/sins-of-the-fathers-sexual-abuse-catholic-order
The face looming towards the rent boy in the London station was familiar. A face from his past: Father John Pinkman. No punter would have guessed that the rent boy had once wanted to be a priest, too. He had spent several years at Mirfield Junior Seminary in Yorkshire which was run by the Verona Fathers, an Italian missionary order. Pinkman had abused him there, was part of the degradation that led to this place, this life. The priest disappeared into the crowd, then reappeared, highlighted by light glinting off his spectacles. The rent boy caught his eye. Pinkman looked hesitant, embarrassed, then boarded a train without speaking. The last, silent goodbye.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/19/sins-of-the-fathers-sexual-abuse-catholic-order