A paedophile monk, Father Thaddeus Kotik, employed a pet tortoise to lure children and subsequently sexually exploit them at a monastery located on a secluded sacred island, according to a report.
The Trappist monastery has housed a small community of Trappist monks for almost a century and attracts up to 60,000 visitors annually.
A review of purported past child sexual abuse by monks including Father Thaddeus Kotik revealed that children as young as three were lured and assaulted in “plain sight” on the island off the Pembrokeshire coast.
The review, which investigated complaints from the late 1960s until 1992, focusses on Father Thaddeus Kotik, who sexually molested both girls and boys throughout his tenure as a monk at the abbey.
It was discovered that he employed a pet tortoise, kittens, and offerings of confections to lure children into the monastery garden, where he would sexually exploit them.
The investigation indicated that he “groomed” parents by inundating them with attention, providing babysitting assistance, and presenting minor presents.
Jan Pickles, a former assistant police and crime commissioner at South Wales Police who led the review, said Father Thaddeus Kotik used “complex strategies” to secure the trust of parents and their children, allowing him to perpetrate the abuse in “plain sight” for years.
He died in 1992 without being interviewed by police.
In 2018, six women were paid compensation in out-of-court settlements for the abuse they suffered at his hands.
The review also found that other monks, and men with criminal records who claimed to be monks, were allowed to join the monastery without checks.
The men used their “chosen” religious names to carry out attacks on children who were visiting on school trips or summer holidays with their parents.
One victim told the Daily Mail: “Caldey Island is the perfect place for paedophiles and sex offenders to hide away or go undercover. They should change its name to Paedophile Island – no tourists would visit then.”
Another victim said the way she had been treated since her time on Caldey Island has made the effects of the abuse “a million times worse”.
Rebecca lived on Caldey Island for the first five and a half years of her life.
She told the BBC that Thaddeus Kotik would groom her and other children with the promise of sweets, chocolate and other gifts and then abuse them.
She said: “I don’t know how I survived, it was terrible.
“Learning that the abuse went back as far as the 1960s makes me feel even more angry and upset, because how many times could they have done something about it?
“I don’t think they’re men of God.
“They never have been, they don’t answer to anyone. It’s hypocrisy in the worst way. They’re living a lie.”
Paul Ashton, a sex offender, lived on the island under a false name between 2004 and 2011, while wanted by police in England for possessing illegal images of children.
Another paedophile, Father John Shannon, who was a priest on the island for nine months in 2008, was jailed for possessing extreme sexual images of children as young as nine.
Ms Pickles said there had been a failure of leadership at the highest level within the order and abbey, with repeated and frequent allegations of child sexual abuse by the monk not being reported to authorities.
In the wake of the report, Father Rossey apologised to victims and said safeguarding measures had been put in place since he became abbot.
He said: “It is with deep sorrow and regret that I have read in the review of the great suffering of children who were abused by Father Thaddeus Kotik and the closed culture of secrecy and cover-up which kept this hidden.
“It is clear opportunities were missed to stop the abuse of children. It is particularly heartbreaking to hear children spoke up to adults and no action was taken.
“Children and their families were failed when they should have been supported and listened to. The abuses should have been reported to the statutory authorities.
“On behalf of the monastic community, I sincerely apologise to all those who have been hurt and have suffered because of the abuse of Thaddeus Kotik, and past failures in not protecting children and their families.
“It is particularly odious when abuse is committed and hidden by people who are in positions of trust because of their monastic or priestly vocation.”
The review into historical allegations at Caldey follows an independent probe into the Church of England’s handling of allegations of abuse by the late John Smyth, which said the barrister’s “abhorrent” abuse of more than 100 children and young men was covered up within the Church for years.
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