The Telegraph published this video item, entitled “Leading evangelical vicar ‘abused 27 victims’, new report finds” – below is their description.
A former leading evangelical vicar subjected almost 30 victims to ice baths, naked beatings and sex acts, because his church created a culture where he was “untouchable”, it has admitted.
Jonathan Fletcher, 78, who was lauded as one of the Church of England’s senior leaders in the conservative evangelical constituency, was unmasked in 2019 as an abuser by The Telegraph, which also revealed that he had continued to preach around the world despite being banned two years earlier.
As a result of this newspaper’s investigation, his former church, Emmanuel Church, Wimbledon (ECW), in southwest London, ordered an independent review into his tenure as vicar from 1982 until his retirement in 2012.
Following the publication of the report today, ECW has issued an unprecedented apology “for our failure to provide effective internal and external accountability” and for allowing “Fletcher to be untouchable, which failed his victims”.
The statement came amid warnings that the 27 victims who came forward to the review are “just the tip of the iceberg”.
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