:00:18. > :00:22.Coming up on Inside Out. The Church of England sex abuse scandal the
:00:22. > :00:27.Eastbourne brothers fight for justice. I felt completely
:00:27. > :00:30.responsible. I've killed as if I could have prevented this and I
:00:30. > :00:34.have not done so. How a newlydiscovered wartime letter
:00:34. > :00:39.tells the tragic tale of a forgotten hero from Southborough.
:00:39. > :00:42.Not to know that this big event happen than by a family were
:00:42. > :00:47.involved, it is strange that a big thing like that can just miss you,
:00:47. > :00:51.entirely. And where has all our water gone. Is there really a
:00:52. > :00:56.drought in the middle of winter? This was a vase should be full at
:00:56. > :01:02.this time of year, but it is not. We should be four metres
:01:02. > :01:05.underwater? We should be completely submerged. I'm Natalie Graham with
:01:05. > :01:15.untold stories, closer to home. From in and around Kent and Sussex,
:01:15. > :01:26.
:01:26. > :01:28.Hello, tonight we're at Salomon's House in Southborough. I'll be back
:01:28. > :01:38.here later with an extraordinary story about the family's role in
:01:38. > :01:45.
:01:45. > :01:47.the First World War. But first, for over a year, BBC South East has
:01:47. > :01:50.been investigating Anglican paedophile priests who abused
:01:50. > :01:55.children. It's prompted, for the first time in over 100 years, an
:01:55. > :02:03.inquiry ordered by the Archbishop of Canterbury. But at the very
:02:03. > :02:10.heart of this story are the victims, as Colin Campbell reports. This is
:02:10. > :02:15.a story about predatory paedophile priests and the damage they cause.
:02:15. > :02:20.It did start when I was just nine or ten but continued for the best
:02:20. > :02:30.part of a decade. Victims who've been left fighting for truth and
:02:30. > :02:32.
:02:32. > :02:34.justice. There was no one to turn to, no one that would believe me.
:02:34. > :02:42.And abject failings within the Anglican Church which have left
:02:42. > :02:45.children vulnerable to sexual abuse. We're deeply and profoundly sorry
:02:45. > :02:55.for what happened and really ashamed on behalf of the church
:02:55. > :02:59.
:02:59. > :03:01.community. And this is where the story begins. Eastbourne. As a
:03:01. > :03:07.child Phil Johnson was groomed then seriously sexually abused by a
:03:07. > :03:12.priest. It started when he was a nine year old choirboy and church
:03:12. > :03:17.server. His abuser Father Roy Cotton was at the time a revered,
:03:17. > :03:20.trusted Anglican priest. But it was a deceptive veneer. Cotton was a
:03:20. > :03:26.prolific serial paedophile - with a frightening ability to silence his
:03:26. > :03:28.victims. It was prolonged it went on for years and years and was
:03:28. > :03:36.regular, systematic and became completely routine in the most
:03:36. > :03:40.horrible sort of way you could imagine. So how, did this happen?
:03:40. > :03:45.Cotton was manipulative and highly intelligent. He was ordained in
:03:45. > :03:50.spite of having a previous conviction for abusing a choirboy.
:03:50. > :04:00.It was a green light for a community priest, an opportunity
:04:00. > :04:08.
:04:08. > :04:12.for him to satisfy his lust for boys. And this set the scene for a
:04:12. > :04:17.culture of collusive sexual abuse minded individuals that pervaded
:04:17. > :04:21.this seaside town in the 70's, 80's and 90's. He managed to put himself
:04:21. > :04:26.in a position where nobody questioned his motives. As it turns
:04:26. > :04:30.have come forward I find it almost incomprehensible how he managed to
:04:30. > :04:34.do this. At least twelve men abused as boys have now revealed they were
:04:34. > :04:41.targeted and abused by Cotton. was scared, I was very scared, I
:04:41. > :04:49.was a big part of me that wanted to run away but I felt trapped" Many
:04:49. > :04:57.like Simon were lured then sexually assaulted inside the vicarage. It's
:04:57. > :05:06.had an enormous impact on my life. I had quite a difficult childhood.
:05:06. > :05:10.I've self harmed over the years or in my younger years I should say.
:05:10. > :05:13.It's something that you just don't get out of your mind it's a bit
:05:13. > :05:16.like losing somebody it may soften over time but it never ever ever
:05:16. > :05:24.goes away. Convicted of abusing boys in 2008 this priest, Rev Colin
:05:24. > :05:27.Pritchard knew exactly what Cotton was up to. The pair who'd been
:05:27. > :05:30.friends for years had swapped victims. Cotton also regularly took
:05:30. > :05:37.boys on his own to France where he visited a Catholic priest, who took
:05:37. > :05:42.indecent photographs of the children. I can't believe that
:05:42. > :05:49.firstly that it was allowed to happen and that nobody seemed to
:05:49. > :05:54.question it. It just shouldn't be allowed for anybody really to take
:05:54. > :05:58.unrelated children away one on one to share hotel rooms. The man in
:05:59. > :06:02.charge, the area Bishop at the time was Bishop Peter Ball. Later, in
:06:02. > :06:10.1993 he was forced to resign in disgrace after accepting a police
:06:10. > :06:16.caution for gross indecency against a 17 year old trainee monk.
:06:16. > :06:19.have the vicar, clearly was an abuser with a previous conviction.
:06:19. > :06:25.You had his best friend who was subsequently convicted of abusing
:06:25. > :06:35.of boys. You have a Bishop who accepted a police caution for acts
:06:35. > :06:35.
:06:35. > :06:43.of abuse and you have other associates. We've discovered Cotton
:06:43. > :06:46.took teenage boys to see Bishop Peter Ball in the 1980s. Bishop
:06:47. > :06:49.Peter put young men, some in their teens who'd stayed with him at his
:06:49. > :06:54.residential retreat in Litlington, under the care of Cotton in
:06:54. > :06:58.Eastbourne. But Bishop Peter Ball denies there was any collusion. In
:06:58. > :07:01.a statement he told us he saw as much of Roy Cotton as he did any
:07:01. > :07:05.other priest. He says he certainly did not know of any abuse. He told
:07:05. > :07:12.us the police had inspected his files at Lambeth Palace but had not
:07:12. > :07:14.found any legal offence. In an interview conducted last year, the
:07:14. > :07:23.Bishop of Chichester the right reverend John Hind declined to
:07:23. > :07:28.comment on Peter Ball. Do you believe Bishop Peter Ball turned a
:07:28. > :07:31.blind eye to what was going on? don't think i'm willing to talk
:07:31. > :07:34.about someone from the past like that I think that it would be
:07:34. > :07:37.inappropriate for me to go into that. Adding to Phil's torment was
:07:37. > :07:42.the shattering discovery that his younger brother had also been
:07:42. > :07:46.targetted by Cotton. An angelic looking choirboy, Gary Johnson kept
:07:46. > :07:49.the abuse he'd endured a closely guarded secret. I just directly
:07:49. > :07:59.asked him the question, and asked him if anything had happened to him
:07:59. > :07:59.
:07:59. > :08:02.with Roy Cotton. And how did you respond to that? I just froze I can
:08:02. > :08:05.remember not moving and not breathing and not doing anything. I
:08:05. > :08:09.didn't even look round we were actually adjacent to each other and
:08:09. > :08:12.so my back was to him when he spoke to me and I didn't look round or
:08:12. > :08:16.anything I just froze and obviously he knew what that meant, and I
:08:16. > :08:20.couldn't tell you how long that lasted it could have been 5 mins or
:08:20. > :08:23.an hour but from that point on it was kind of like I was rumbled you
:08:23. > :08:26.know this had been my deepest darkest secret I'd never breathed
:08:26. > :08:29.it to anybody and that point my whole life had to change. I just
:08:29. > :08:33.felt completely responsible - I felt as though you know I could
:08:33. > :08:39.have prevented this from happening to him and hadn't done so. Together
:08:39. > :08:42.Phil and Gary sought justice. But two years after going to the police
:08:42. > :08:51.the Crown Prosecution Service said there weren't enough independent
:08:51. > :08:54.witnesses. Obviously I felt immensely let down and depressed
:08:54. > :09:04.and thought that was the end of it. I thought all that effort and grief
:09:04. > :09:05.
:09:05. > :09:08.and heartache had been for nothing. Despite this major setback, 15
:09:08. > :09:11.years later the brothers chose to fight for justice through the civil
:09:11. > :09:14.courts. To gain compensation from the church both were repeatedly
:09:14. > :09:20.evaluated by psychiatrists who assessed the damage caused by the
:09:20. > :09:23.abuse. A process that often retraumatises victims. During this
:09:23. > :09:32.assessment back in 2010 Phil accompanied his younger brother to
:09:32. > :09:35.give him moral support. How did it go? Horrible. Do you want to go
:09:35. > :09:45.somewhere and get a drink? Yeah, what time have we got to be at the
:09:45. > :10:11.
:10:12. > :10:16.station? Half past two, we've got Right, let's go somewhere. Gary and
:10:17. > :10:19.Phil eventually received a compensation payout from the church.
:10:19. > :10:29.More importantly, they say, the settlement included a formal
:10:29. > :10:33.
:10:33. > :10:36.apology accepting mistakes that led to their abuse. Being abused is bad
:10:36. > :10:39.enough by a person in such a position means I don't trust
:10:39. > :10:42.doctors, I don't trust the police I don't trust anyone in a position of
:10:42. > :10:45.authority I don't trust men. Can you imagine going through life not
:10:45. > :10:48.trusting all those categories of people? The sexual abuse in this
:10:48. > :10:51.case which spans 60 years is extensive and disturbing. But just,
:10:51. > :11:01.if not more worrying are the failings within the Church of
:11:01. > :11:02.
:11:02. > :11:04.England and growing suspicions of a cover-up. Roy Cotton's career file,
:11:04. > :11:07.spanning 27 years, likely to have contained details implicating
:11:07. > :11:12.church hierarchy, appears to have simply vanished as if it never
:11:12. > :11:15.existed. We've learnt that elsewhere in Sussex one senior
:11:15. > :11:23.member of clergy is suspected to have instructed the burning of
:11:23. > :11:26.potentially incriminating files. Following our investigations the
:11:26. > :11:28.Archbishop of Canterbury has for the first time in over 100 years
:11:28. > :11:32.launched an inquiry into the safeguarding practices in the
:11:32. > :11:42.Diocese of Chichester. The Bishop of Chichester who retires in two
:11:42. > :11:42.
:11:43. > :11:46.months, has welcomed the investigation. I think there's been
:11:46. > :11:49.an instinct which I think is quite a good Christian instinct which is
:11:49. > :11:52.to think the best of someone until you know the worst. I think in
:11:52. > :11:55.safeguarding terms that's actually a very dangerous policy. And I
:11:55. > :11:58.think one of the things we've learnt is that anybody may be an
:11:58. > :12:01.abuser. I think the failings have been profound and devastating to a
:12:01. > :12:11.lot of people. I don't think that the Bishops and senior clergy
:12:11. > :12:12.
:12:12. > :12:20.understand at all just how big the impact this has on people's lives.
:12:20. > :12:23.Cheating his many victims of justice, Roy Cotton died in 2006.
:12:23. > :12:31.His ashes are marked by a headstone in St George's church graveyard in
:12:31. > :12:35.the village of Brede. The parish he went to after Eastbourne. Locals
:12:35. > :12:45.requested it be removed. Church officials recently planted a nine
:12:45. > :12:48.pound holly bush in front of it in an attempt to cover it up. It's
:12:48. > :12:51.been such a long slog, such an uphill battle I don't understand
:12:51. > :12:54.why a body supposed to represent everything that's just and true and
:12:55. > :12:57.right can't just put their hands up and be open and honest and share
:12:57. > :13:07.the truth with people however embarrassing that might be for
:13:07. > :13:11.
:13:11. > :13:15.Tragically, his story is not an isolated one. It is merely
:13:16. > :13:20.representative of something that leaves many unanswered questions
:13:20. > :13:30.which we will be pursuing in the months to come. If you have been
:13:30. > :13:47.
:13:47. > :13:52.affected by any of the issues, you Are we heading for a drought? Are
:13:52. > :14:02.feeling back from October 2010 to October 2011, this is the driest
:14:02. > :14:06.
:14:06. > :14:10.Now we live in a world where a captain who deserts a sinking ship
:14:10. > :14:15.is more likely to be remembered than a captain he does his duty.
:14:15. > :14:25.Maybe this is time to tell the forgotten story of HMS Hythe and if
:14:25. > :14:35.heroic final act of one man from Almost 100 years ago, this house
:14:35. > :14:37.
:14:37. > :14:44.just outside Tunbridge Wells received a letter. It was addressed
:14:44. > :14:50.to this man and it told how his son, known as Reggie, had died. The
:14:50. > :14:56.story of red tape and a 127 local men who died with him began to fade
:14:56. > :15:00.into history as the letter was lost. One century on and the house is
:15:00. > :15:05.part of Canterbury Christ Church University. Today, I am seeing one
:15:05. > :15:09.room which has changed very little since Reggie's day. There is a
:15:09. > :15:16.corner office still devoted to his memory. And this is his Royal
:15:16. > :15:22.engineers uniform? Yes, they would all have been issued with these.
:15:22. > :15:30.His body was never recovered. Presumably, one of the outfit went
:15:30. > :15:37.that way. He went on 28th October, 1915, at the end of Britain's
:15:38. > :15:46.disastrous campaign in Gallipoli. The decision to pull out was one
:15:46. > :15:55.day too late for HMS Hythe. More than 100 men to run. -- were more
:15:55. > :15:59.than 100 men drowned. For his father back here, it was not just
:15:59. > :16:04.his son he lost, but his regiment as well. They must have hit him
:16:04. > :16:08.very hard? It must have been terrible. It was a terrible tragedy.
:16:08. > :16:12.Yes, it was a tragedy for the entire area but here, it must have
:16:12. > :16:17.been felt keenly as well. To commemorate the terrible loss of so
:16:17. > :16:27.many local men, Sir David had a plaque made. It is mounted on a
:16:27. > :16:30.
:16:30. > :16:37.wall here at St Matthew's Church. The lives of each of the men named
:16:37. > :16:44.on the plaque are being researched by local authority -- a local
:16:44. > :16:48.author. The men were very young. There is one road, Silverdale Road,
:16:48. > :16:53.where a great many of them came from abroad and died. A local
:16:53. > :16:56.postman had to deliver to every house when someone had died and
:16:56. > :17:00.halfway down the road, he abandoned his task because it was so
:17:00. > :17:07.distressing for him to hear the cries and weeping of the women who
:17:07. > :17:14.were opening their letters. They were hearing that their sons or
:17:14. > :17:18.husbands are brothers, or whatever, had died. This historian recently
:17:18. > :17:23.began to look into the sinking of the HMS Hythe, but there is not a
:17:23. > :17:33.lot of material. This is the only surviving photograph of the HMS
:17:33. > :17:38.Hythe. This was in its pre-war days as a cross-Channel ferry. It was
:17:39. > :17:42.preparing to land its troops on the rocky headland at Gallipoli. They
:17:42. > :17:47.were preparing to go on show to take part in the ongoing campaign,
:17:47. > :17:52.and in the darkness of the night, there were no lights on the ship or
:17:52. > :17:57.the other ship that ran into them. It almost cut HMS Hythe into and
:17:57. > :18:02.the ship sank within 10 minutes. The foremast apparently came down
:18:02. > :18:06.on to an awning on the deck. Most men became trapped under this
:18:06. > :18:10.awning. Others were thrown into the sea, couldn't swim, and have
:18:10. > :18:17.lifejackets. A few lucky men managed to get from HMS Hythe to
:18:17. > :18:21.another ship, which was locked into HMS Hythe. After that, the two
:18:21. > :18:25.ships separated and will be if you manage to get across. The details
:18:25. > :18:31.of those final moments were written down soon after by the commanding
:18:31. > :18:37.officer and said in a letter. The letter, after a hundred years, has
:18:37. > :18:46.turned up in a shop in Hastings. A look at the name on the front and
:18:46. > :18:50.the name rang a bell. I suddenly thought, there's a place of that
:18:50. > :18:54.name in Tunbridge Wells. I discovered this does -- this
:18:54. > :19:01.astonishing story. The contents are quite moving and it is very
:19:01. > :19:05.historic. And the letter, it tells how his son, Reggie, had the chance
:19:05. > :19:12.to jump to the safety of the other ship but that he chose not to. He
:19:12. > :19:15.gave his life attempting to save as many of the men as he could. You
:19:15. > :19:21.will sometimes sense have learnt of the death of your son. You will be
:19:21. > :19:23.anxious to hear how it occurred. At anxious to hear how it occurred. At
:19:23. > :19:27.the beginning, the two vessels clung to each other for a few
:19:27. > :19:34.minutes and about 50 men and a few officers scrambled across onto the
:19:34. > :19:43.other at best will. -- onto the other ship. He did not go himself
:19:43. > :19:48.because I am sure he wanted to see He was seen giving his lifejacket
:19:48. > :19:53.and other men who -- to another man who could not swim. He was known to
:19:53. > :19:58.be very fond of his men. They were all men who knew him. This tragic
:19:58. > :20:03.loss hit the community heart. In just that one night, 99 children in
:20:03. > :20:09.May there were left without fathers. This is the family cottage. -- thus
:20:09. > :20:15.the family copy of the local paper. There is a face to every men -- to
:20:15. > :20:25.every name. The article that the company's the picture says that,
:20:25. > :20:27.
:20:27. > :20:34.this couple are mourning the loss of two sons. Four members of the
:20:34. > :20:39.final family were lost that night. Even their story was forgotten
:20:39. > :20:42.until one of the descendants decided to search for information
:20:42. > :20:46.about her family tree. I did not know that my family were so
:20:46. > :20:49.involved in this. You do not think that something like that could just
:20:49. > :20:55.miss you entirely. It is the strangest thing to look it up and
:20:55. > :20:59.realise just what was going on. You wonder, why wouldn't you know? If I
:20:59. > :21:03.had children, I would tell them all about it. I would hope they would
:21:03. > :21:07.then pass that on to another generation. It has just not
:21:07. > :21:12.happened. Despite the plaque in the Church, and even a street named
:21:12. > :21:21.after HMS Hythe, it seems this tragedy was forgotten about in just
:21:21. > :21:25.a few generations. There is a simple explanation for this. It was
:21:25. > :21:32.catastrophic for those who lost their lives but unfortunately, the
:21:32. > :21:35.scale involved, a couple of hundred poor souls involved, pales into
:21:35. > :21:42.insignificance when you compare it to the rest of that campaign and
:21:42. > :21:46.the totality of the First World War as a whole. Today, we here every
:21:46. > :21:50.name of every soldier that is lost in Afghanistan. It is read out in
:21:50. > :21:55.the House of Commons. But would not have been possible in the First
:21:55. > :21:58.World War. They would have taken years to read out all those names.
:21:58. > :22:02.A memorial is a fitting and proper way to honour those who have died
:22:02. > :22:07.for their country, but after a while, names on stone cannot help
:22:07. > :22:11.but become a little cold and impersonal. A handwritten letter,
:22:11. > :22:17.discovered nearly 100 years later, brings it all vividly back to life.
:22:17. > :22:20.You could read countless books on the Gallipoli campaign or on the
:22:20. > :22:26.loss of HMS Hythe, but I do not think anything would bring you as
:22:26. > :22:31.close to that event as this letter. This letter reminds us that history
:22:31. > :22:37.is not just facts and figures, it is about people who deserve to be
:22:37. > :22:47.remembered. That is why Andy is sending it back to the house where
:22:47. > :22:50.
:22:50. > :22:56.Ask anyone about the hottest year they can remember and most people
:22:56. > :23:03.will mention 1976, one of the driest years on record. This year,
:23:03. > :23:11.we may have match that. As for clues to the impending water
:23:11. > :23:17.shortage - the clues appeared in spring last year. At this massive
:23:17. > :23:22.reservoir in Sussex, revels -- levels are at a record low. Are we
:23:22. > :23:32.running out of water in the South East? Everyone remembers the
:23:32. > :23:32.
:23:32. > :23:39.Of course, there was a flipside - and drought that almost emptied
:23:39. > :23:42.what reservoirs and rivers, called he fires, triggered hosepipe bans
:23:42. > :23:46.and saw standpipes appear across the south. More than 30 years on,
:23:46. > :23:52.surely we should be more prepared for a drought. That could never
:23:52. > :23:56.happen again, could it? The reservoir should be filler this
:23:56. > :24:04.time of year, but it is not. The pumping station has been left high
:24:04. > :24:08.and dry. In theory, we should be four metres underwater. Yes, we
:24:08. > :24:14.should be completely submerged. He joined the water board in 1976. Is
:24:14. > :24:18.this the worst it has ever been? Yes, it is very, very serious. The
:24:18. > :24:24.reservoir just as 30% of the lottery should have and the area is
:24:24. > :24:29.officially on drought alert. We would need to have above-average
:24:29. > :24:33.rainfall from now through to early or mid- spring. Unless we get our
:24:33. > :24:38.weather, things could be very different. We need to pull all the
:24:38. > :24:42.stops out. Because of the severity of the shortage, the Environmental
:24:42. > :24:46.Agency -- the Environment Agency must allow the reservoir to be
:24:46. > :24:52.topped up by extracting water from near by streams and rivers. This
:24:52. > :24:59.comes as a cost to wildlife and the environment. Are you surprised by
:24:59. > :25:04.how low it is? I am surprised and alarmed by it. I am worried about
:25:04. > :25:08.how it will affect the fish for anglers. Many streams and rivers
:25:08. > :25:11.along the south coast are renowned breeding-ground for sea trout. The
:25:12. > :25:16.water should be deep enough for them to lay their eggs upstream now.
:25:16. > :25:20.It is not. On top of that, we have the issue of extraction. Do we have
:25:20. > :25:25.to look again at how much we take out of the rivers? They have to
:25:25. > :25:31.find other ways of finding water. Whether that be reservoirs or not,
:25:32. > :25:35.I do not know. The think it is too easy for the water companies to up
:25:35. > :25:40.-- to extract water. It is the easiest source for the water
:25:40. > :25:44.companies. The pump it out the water and treated. Back in the
:25:44. > :25:47.1990s, this river used to hit the headlines when it flooded in the
:25:47. > :25:52.winter months. This is it today. Nothing is flowing because the
:25:52. > :25:57.ground water levels are too low. It is these underground supply is that
:25:57. > :26:01.water companies rely on, particularly in times of drought.
:26:01. > :26:06.Here, the environment and -- the Environment Agency are monitoring
:26:07. > :26:16.how low levels are. At levels are low, it means there could be
:26:17. > :26:19.
:26:19. > :26:25.problems for extractors. River flows well below. It looks like it
:26:25. > :26:30.is just over five and a half metres. That is just a couple of metres
:26:30. > :26:33.lower than it should be. The Government has just recently
:26:33. > :26:39.published a White Paper that calls for water companies to rely less on
:26:39. > :26:42.taking suppliers from our rivers and look elsewhere. The extraction
:26:42. > :26:46.regime was set out in the 1960s when we never used words like
:26:46. > :26:51.climate change or resilience. We now have to be resilient and you
:26:51. > :27:00.are going to start to see more of a flow of water from what a rich
:27:00. > :27:08.areas to what a poor areas. It is called bulk trading. The most
:27:08. > :27:13.important change we want to see us that we get prolonged rain. We will
:27:13. > :27:17.have problems in the summer if we do not get that. The average person
:27:17. > :27:23.to deal deuces were 450 litres of water each day. -- the average
:27:23. > :27:30.person uses over 450 metres. As well as giving us a variety of
:27:30. > :27:35.water-saving devices, they're hoping that installing meters will
:27:35. > :27:39.encourage householders to cut back. We have to have enough water for
:27:39. > :27:45.the environment and our customers. Population is increasing, demand
:27:45. > :27:53.for water -- for water is increasing. You only pay for what
:27:53. > :27:59.you use. I see a disaster coming. Nature does repair. We have to bear
:27:59. > :28:09.that in mind. Major may well appear this, but it may be too late. --
:28:09. > :28:11.
:28:11. > :28:15.If you want any more information on tonight's Shaw, you can visit our
:28:15. > :28:25.Kent or Sussex website. You can also watch the whole show again on
:28:25. > :28:28.
:28:28. > :28:34.Next week - it is a holiday rip-off. The online scam at trick hundred.
:28:34. > :28:39.Complete devastation. Humiliating, as well. Taking your money with no
:28:39. > :28:45.intention of letting you have a holiday. And on the trail of this