Nobody cared, nobody listened, says mum of boy allegedly abused by priest

Allegations a priest sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy were covered up by the Church in Wales over three decades allowing Anthony Pierce to rise through the ranks to become a bishop, a report has found.

Four Archbishops of Wales including Dr Rowan Williams were referred to in the report which lists a "catalogue of failures" by the Church.

The alleged victim has since died. His mother told BBC Wales "nobody cared, nobody was listening" and it was "too little too late for him".

Current Archbishop Cherry Vann said: "The review shows in painful detail the missed opportunities, the harmful assumptions and the inadequate processes which characterised the Church's response to these allegations."

Pierce, who had served as Bishop of Swansea and Brecon for nine years from 1999, was jailed last year for historical sexual abuse of a different boy.

Between 1986 and 2010, concerns over Pierce were raised on four occasions with some of the most senior members of the church, the report says.

But nothing was done in a "don't ask, don't tell" culture, with it being felt it was "safe to hush it up", the review led by barrister Gabrielle Higgins found.

Speaking out for the first time the alleged victim's mother Brenda, not her real name, told BBC Wales: "The only person who believed him was me... it was dismissed. He had no trust in the system.

"It was all brushed under the carpet. And the church as an institution, as a self-serving institution as far as I'm concerned, doesn't know what to do with something like this, or it would prefer to protect its own reputation."

The alarm was first raised over Pierce's behaviour by male students at Swansea University in 1986 where Pierce, now 85, was a chaplain.

This was uncovered by a BBC Wales investigation into historic abuse in the Church, which heard from victims and whistleblowers who said abuse was ignored.

The review said it was reported to the then Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, Benjamin Vaughan, but nothing was done.

In 1993, Brenda made an allegation of sexual assault by Pierce on the alleged victim and Pierce, in his late 40s at the time, "implicitly admitted that something inappropriate had happened with the boy".

The priest offered his resignation over the alleged assault which was said to have been in or around 1990, but it was refused and no action was taken.

The then Bishop Dewi Bridges knew police were already making "unrelated enquiries" about Pierce and "sexual abuse", according to the report.

The review took a year from when it was announced in February 2025, with the Church in Wales initially stating it should be concluded within three months, "if possible".

Findings included the alleged sexual assault of the 15-year-old altar server being seen as "not paedophilia" because it involved a boy, not a girl.

"This catalogue of failures can only be a source of shame for the Church," said Vann.

In 1999, Pierce was elected to become Bishop of Swansea and Brecon despite "rumours" about his conduct circulating among those who elected him including Williams, then Bishop of Monmouth, and Barry Morgan, then Bishop of Llandaff.

The then Archbishop of Wales, Alwyn Rice Jones, tried to put the concerns to rest saying he had spoken to Pierce and been reassured.

Before he was enthroned as Bishop, Brenda wrote to the Church reporting the abuse again.

A handwritten report about the allegation containing an admission of a criminal act was then prepared by a "friend" of Pierce's who hand-delivered it to Rice Jones.

This report, not included in the review but which BBC Wales has previously seen, said Pierce had been "naive" but "could not escape the reality that he was an adult" while the victim was a child.

"He was frightened of his own shame being made public, and of losing his ministry," it reads.

But Rice Jones was said to have seen the assault allegation, and Pierce's admission, as "a bit of a hiccup and as evidence of homosexuality not paedophilia and that this was a blip and it should just be put to one side".

Brenda told BBC Wales the alleged victim was "an emotionally fragile boy" at the time.

She said: "If you are going to take anything like this forward - it's a delicate process from making an allegation through to seeing the process through.

"They need nurturing, they need looking after, they need being believing, they need to be wrapped up and cared for, not chucked on the rubbish heap as we felt that's what happened."

The review said: "It seems doubtful that allegations of sexual activity, with an admission of an improper incident, involving an allegedly 15-year-old girl would have been put to one side in the same way.

"The approach seems to have been driven more by a reluctance to inquire into homosexual orientation, blinding recognition of child sexual abuse."

The handwritten report was given to Williams by Rice Jones when he took over as Archbishop of Wales for "safekeeping" and "should any further questions arise" about Pierce, saying its contents might help.

Williams "merely glanced briefly at the contents" and assumed it provided information about the person who made the allegations. He said he didn't know the allegation involved a child.

He took it to Lambeth Palace with personal papers in 2002 when he became Archbishop of Canterbury, where it remained until it was tracked down in 2010 as part of the Historic Cases Review – carried out by the Church in Wales into its handling of safeguarding cases.

At this point Williams located the report and "stated his dismay" at the admission of guilt.

The alleged victim died in 2004.

"He was very troubled he couldn't find a way of being in the world, I think it haunted him," his mother said.

"The abuse always laid heavy on him."

Williams said he was aware of a certain amount of gossip about Pierce, but never criminal allegations, and told BBC Wales he accepted it was an error to take the report to Lambeth Palace.

He said: "I regret it very much if my delay in reading it further complicated the process of dealing with the criminal activity.

"I am very conscious that Pierce's victims and their families will feel that the processes of the Church did not adequately protect them at that time, and am very sorry indeed for any ways in which I contributed to this, however inadvertently."

Evidence about Pierce was brought together and the Church referred it to the police, although the review found not all information held was provided – including the 1999 handwritten report.

Morgan - Archbishop of Wales at the time - said he had assumed all the information the Church had at the time had been given to the police.

He added: "It was not until this review that I discovered that not all documents had been handed to those bodies and I was very shocked to learn that to be the case."

Pierce's permission to officiate – meaning he could legally lead services and carry out weddings or funerals – was suspended while this happened.

John Davies, then Bishop of Swansea and Brecon emailed Morgan, who was Archbishop of Wales at that time, and said he hoped Pierce would get a caution at worst or "nothing further done at best". Morgan didn't reply.

When challenged on this by the review Davies, who went to become Archbishop of Wales, said the prospect Pierce might have committed other offences involving other victims "did not occur to him".

Davies later reinstated Pierce's permission to officiate; the report says he did not think he "asked or informed anyone", including child protection officers, before doing this.

Davies told BBC Wales whilst he accepted "errors of judgement" and expressed his "utter abhorrence of what Pierce did", he understood the allegation to be an "isolated incident" for which "no prosecution had been pursued or envisaged".

"Given his admission, I believed Pierce might properly be spoken to and cautioned by police," he said.

Pierce was suspended again in 2016 when the 1999 letter was discovered.

In 2023 another man who was abused by Pierce as a boy told the Church in Wales.

Pierce remains in jail after last year admitting sexually assaulting the then 15-year-old five times between 1985 and 1990.

South Wales Police confirmed the investigation into Pierce is still active.

The independent review said since the 1990s a "number of changes" had been made with the introduction of safeguarding officers to the Church, development of policies, and increased scrutiny and safeguarding checks in bishops' appointments.

However, some "continuing weaknesses" were identified in the appointments process for bishops.

The reviewer made recommendations to improve this but, she said, these would have been "highly unlikely" to change the outcome in Pierce's case.

In the last year Pierce has been deposed from holy orders and he is no longer a priest.

The review did not include an assessment of the Church in Wales' current systems and processes except in the appointment of bishops and archdeacons.

Brenda said: "People knew. Throughout this time. And yet nobody was joining up those dots.

"I don't want the Church to say 'we will learn from this'. They've already said that 40 years ago, 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago and they're saying it again now. I would need to see something that would persuades me that, yes, that's OK now, that will be OK. And at this point I don't see that.

"But I do have image of him smiling, saying thanks mum, for taking it forward. Thanks for not letting it go. Thanks for still believing in me."

The Church in Wales was formed in 1920 following disestablishment from the Church of England, but it is a member of the Anglican communion.

Additional reporting by Ben Summer and Kayley Thomas