To further her campaign, she aims to meet public figures who have been similarly traduced, including Lord Bramall, Nigel Evans, the MP cleared of sex offences against young men, and the retired Bishop of Gloucester, who was suspended from his duties for many months before being exonerated of indecent assaults he was alleged to have perpetrated in the early Eighties.
She has also shared her experiences with Oxford University criminologists, who are researching the ramifications when people are wrongly accused of historic sex crimes. Only she and her accusers can know the truth. However, listening to her story, talking to others with a close knowledge of the details, and remembering that fundamental tenet — that everyone is innocent until proven guilty — the way she has been treated almost beggars belief.
Her world shifted on its axis on July 22, Yet three fretful months passed before she was finally summoned to Abingdon police station, where she was formally arrested and then quizzed under caution for more than six hours before being bailed.
As Sister Frances is recalling this stressful encounter, I remind her that she was involved in a very public sexual controversy once before. In a BBC documentary on the hospices, in , a wheelchair-bound young man immobilised by a degenerative disease revealed how Sister Frances and other hospice trustees had helped him to experience sex for the first time, with a prostitute at his home.
Nor, it transpires, did they have anything to do with the hospices or their past residents. And they do not concern children. Sister Frances was told the accusations had been made by a third party on behalf of two adult women, who claimed she assaulted them between and Why would anyone make such vile and ruinous accusations?
Did she forgive them? She pauses and sighs. This was in July, Last year, however, her name was leaked to the Press. She says she has a good idea who the culprit was. Since then, the false allegations have become the focus of internet rumour-mongers.
In , when she was the Mother Superior, Sister Frances visited Ghana and found him languishing in a hospital, so malnourished that he weighed just 9lb at ten months old.
Moved by his plight, she arranged for him to live with her in Britain. Though she raised him with characteristic love and dedication, his life has been turbulent and he has been jailed for a string of offences, the most shocking of which saw him convicted for kidnapping and assaulting one of the nuns.
With a rare flash of anger, however, Sister Frances dismisses this speculation. She says her son has now embarked on a HGV driving course and is rebuilding his life. Sister Frances has experienced a huge outpouring of encouragement and support from the Oxford public. Understandably, she prefers to discuss the huge outpouring of encouragement and support she has received from the Oxford public.
Having met the monstrous DJ Jimmy Savile more than once during her career, she certainly does not wish to discourage those who have genuinely suffered, or witnessed, abuse from coming forward.
But in her new crusade, she will argue that anyone accused of historic sex abuse should be afforded the same rights as their accusers until they are proved guilty in law. They should, for example, retain their anonymity. She says that because she is championing the cause, people have got in touch with her with tragic stories. And in my case, there will be no end.
No formal closure. Username Please enter your Username. Password Please enter your Password. Forgot password? Don't have an account? Sign in via your Institution. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Sign in with your library card Please enter your library card number. Helen House hospice was founded in , inspired by two-year-old Helen Worswick. Sister Frances met Helen after an operation to remove a brain tumour left Helen severely disabled.
The friendship which Frances developed with Helen and her parents proved the inspiration for the UK's first children's hospice. More information on the work of Helen House today can be found at the Helen House website. Sister Frances went on to found Douglas House, a "respice" for people between 16 and 40 with life-shortening conditions, which was opened by HM The Queen in and which is built in the same grounds as Helen House.
Both houses offer respite care, accompanied by members of the family if they so choose, end-of-life care, and family support from the time of referral for as many years after the death of the young person as the family may wish.
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