Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Downside, Somerset, United Kingdom · 2012

United Kingdom: Downside housemaster convicted; school had kept him teaching after 1987 disclosure

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Benedictine monk and housemaster

Organization

Downside School

Spiritual nexus

A live-in housemaster's pastoral control over boarders — and an institution that kept him in place after it knew.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2012-01-01 · conviction and sentence

    English Crown Court. Fr Richard White (known as 'Father Nicholas'), a Benedictine monk and housemaster, was jailed for five years for gross indecency and indecent assault against two boys at Downside School in 1987–1989; the school had allowed him to continue teaching after the first disclosure in 1987.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • live-in pastoral control over boarders
  • institutional retention after first disclosure

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'Downside School monk jailed', HuffPost UK (Jan. 2012).

Reports the conviction and the post-1987 retention.

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