Official finding Buddhist institutions and contexts Buddhist institutions and lineages London, UK · 2020

Charity Commission for England and Wales statutory inquiry finds Rigpa put students at risk of harm from Sogyal Lakar

Record class

Institutional event

Evidence status

Official finding

Authority role

founder and Tibetan Buddhist teacher, charity trustees responsible for safeguarding

Organization

Rigpa Fellowship

Spiritual nexus

The inquiry found that guru devotion and the spiritual hierarchy Sogyal Lakar held over an 'inner circle' of students, combined with institutional safeguarding policies that placed responsibility on students rather than the teacher, is what allowed serious physical, sexual and emotional abuse to occur and to go unaddressed by trustees who knew of it.

Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2018-11-08 · statutory inquiry opened

Charity Commission for England and Wales. The Commission opened a statutory inquiry into Rigpa Fellowship under section 46 of the Charities Act 2011 following the 2017 letter from eight senior students and the Lewis Silkin independent investigation.
2020-11-20 · final inquiry report

Charity Commission for England and Wales. The statutory inquiry found that some students of Sogyal Lakar, part of an 'inner circle', were subjected to serious physical, sexual and emotional abuse by him, and that senior individuals within the charity were aware of at least some of these issues and failed to address them, exposing beneficiaries to risk of harm. The Commission found the charity's safeguarding policies inadequate and criticised policies that 'blurred the distinction between consent and submission', placing responsibility for safeguarding on the student rather than the teacher. Former trustee Patrick Gaffney was found unfit to serve as a trustee and disqualified for 8 years under s181A of the Charities Act 2011 (effective 12 April 2019) after the inquiry found he knew of 1994 abuse allegations and failed to act. Former trustee Susan Burrows was removed as trustee under s79(4) of the Charities Act 2011 (effective 20 September 2019) and permanently disqualified from acting as a trustee or senior manager of any charity, after the inquiry found she had knowledge of abuse allegations and failed to act appropriately.

Documented coercion mechanisms

guru devotion
spiritual hierarchy
institutional dependency
safeguarding policies that blurred consent and submission

Primary record

Sources

official finding statutory regulator inquiry report Charity Commission for England and Wales, 'Charity Inquiry: Rigpa Fellowship' (published 20 Nov. 2020, updated 30 Dec. 2020; withdrawn as current guidance 6 Jan. 2023 but preserved as the official inquiry report).: The Commission's statutory inquiry report finds that some students in Sogyal Lakar's inner circle were subjected to serious physical, sexual and emotional abuse by him, that senior charity figures knew and failed to act, and that safeguarding policies were inadequate. It records the disqualification of trustee Patrick Gaffney for 8 years and the removal and permanent disqualification of trustee Susan Burrows.
national news court and regulator reporting regulatory finding report Islington Gazette, "'Shameful': Sogyal Rinpoche's Cally Buddhist charity Rigpa 'put students at risk of harm', Charity Commission finds" (Nov. 2020).: Contemporaneous press reporting of the Charity Commission's findings, summarising the abuse findings, the trustee failures, and the disqualification/removal actions taken against Gaffney and Burrows.
sector press regulatory reporting regulatory finding report Civil Society News, 'Trustee who failed to act on knowledge of serious abuse against students is permanently banned from trusteeship' (2020).: Sector press reporting on the Charity Commission's disqualification of Susan Burrows and the underlying inquiry findings on safeguarding failures at Rigpa.

Related record

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