To find this horrific?

[BaffledReally]

You kind of expect to be safe in boring, leafy Solihull: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63228643 .
I just feel so betrayed. She had her husband basically being janitor to that church, he could go in whenever. During the week, St Helen's church is a montessori nursery; she put those babies in danger. He could have come in and done what he wanted to them. The Greenhams had some young teenager renting a room in that vicarage, and kids came to the vicarage for booze-ups. It somehow seemed fine at the time, after all they seemed like such nice people. To find out that they left their previous parish because apparently Peter Greenham sexually abused a child there is just horrific. Why didn't anyone do anything about them back then? Do all paedos and their enablers seem like nice people? How does one avoid encountering people like this in life? I just feel so lost.

I send hugs, it's a hard one to deal with. It can be really shocking to realise that people who do bad things can be nice, seemingly decent people. I had a tutor as a child who seemed like a decent guy, and then got caught having sex in the same building where children were sitting an 11+ exam, though I guess that's nothing compared to this. I have to say though, I don't get enablers at all. It creeps me out when women knowingly let paedos have access to kids.

The article confuses me a little. But I mainly struggle to understand if the church’s safeguarding policy followed. I can’t see how this could have happened if it had.

@PurBal I don't think they do follow their policies, they kind of have a history of this sort of thing. If they followed their policies, why would they have hired a murderer (manslaughterer?) to act as a youth worker?: www.churchofengland.org/about/leadership-and-governance/legal-services/clergy-discipline/tribunal-decisions (Robinson, 2008). The guy who hired him just got told off, nothing really happened

This is absolutely appalling. I've just read the article. How on earth was she given another parish/job/whatever, while she was still with him! It beggars belief. She can not be trusted and must surely be banned from ever holding a position within the church. She's effectively been enabling him.

Shocking but not surprising. Churches have past form for moving paedo priests to a different diocese when complaints were raised, therefore enabling them.to continue abusing children

Who would find this horrific? 8% voted YABU Gross.

Ffs another peado priest, makes me sick. All those kiddos around them and everyone letting them have free access. When are we going to get the message

Utterly horrific. Almost unbelievable. What in heaven's name can his wife have been thinking!

Bloody hell. I'm not sure what else to say really.

Perhaps a nice end of a nice area is the place to hide in plain sight.

They seemed like such nice people. She was chatty and pleasant, and he was always doing things around the church, so seemed like a perfect vicar's husband. By the time they came here, he was a teacher in a prison, which was another factor to him seeming like a trustworthy person. He had conveniently given up teaching in secondary schools which, now that it transpires that he abused one of his pupils, makes a lot of sense. I just don't understand how she had the audacity to bring him here, knowing that he had already acted to abuse children. Especially with those gatherings of children at their house; he was given so many opportunities.

@WhiteFire I guess so, it never even occurred to me that people like that would be in my area. I suppose the good schools and nice culture made me feel like it was a safe haven of sorts. That illusion is long gone now

Did you grow up in Solihull or move there when older? Knowing some of the people I went to school with there, nothing surprises me.

Older, seemed like a nice place to raise children. Maybe not after all. Knowing that woman was with him all along and did nothing, and had the audacity to apply to be a priest given he'd already abused a child at the church of England holiday club they had run. That she had the audacity to stay a priest after he abused a child at her previous parish. Every time someone tells me a new detail it just gets worse.

Solihull is a nice place (I'll wave randomly in all directions when I am down for a visit this weekend) but it isn't without it's issues, just like anywhere. I do think though that as I said before it is perhaps easier for things to hide in plain sight.