Michael Gove is facing fresh questions about his alleged intervention in a sexual abuse investigation at a Catholic school after further evidence emerged that appears to link him to the inquiry.



The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) has already written to Gove asking whether he tried, during his time as the education secretary, to find out about an investigation into a priest suspected of abuse at Downside Abbey boarding school in Somerset.

Now the environment secretary, Gove denied making any calls to the local authority about the investigation.

It has now emerged that a second witness testified to the inquiry that Gove took an interest in the Downside investigation.

In public evidence to the inquiry, Jane Dziadulewicz referred to preparing a report for an MP while she was the safeguarding official for the Clifton diocese, responsible for child protection in that region.

During cross-examination at the IICSA in December, Dziadulewicz, who was in the post from 2003-15, was asked by the inquiry: “Did you attend a number of multi-disciplinary meetings?” She replied: “Yes.” She was then asked: “Including a late-night safeguarding commission meeting in relation to a report being prepared for an MP?” She replied “yes” without being asked for the identity of the MP.

The Guardian has established that, in a written statement to the inquiry which has not been published, Dziadulewicz named the MP as Gove and said his office had asked local officials to produce a report on the progress of the Downside investigation.

Her evidence adds to that given by Claire Winter, the deputy director of children’s services responsible for children’s social care at Somerset county council, who testified to the inquiry about the investigation on 13 December.

Winter and Dziadulewicz worked closely together with the police during a series of investigations into allegations of sexual abuse at Downside.

In her public evidence, Winter described a sequence of phone calls the likes of which she said she had never experienced before or since.

She said there had been concerns about a priest “and it was agreed that the abbot would suspend him from ministry while investigations continued”. The priest “did have, I discovered subsequently, connections to some quite senior figures”.

One afternoon she received “two phone calls from the office of the minister of state for education asking for the time at which that decision [about the priest] was going to be made. I said I knew what time it was, but I said it was a child protection matter and that I wasn’t willing to discuss it.

“Then very shortly before the time it was due to happen, I had a phone call from somebody who said they were the secretary of state for education and please would I tell them the time at which – he was quite insistent about the time that decision was due to be made.

“ ... I said exactly the same thing, that it was a child protection matter, it was in relation to a criminal matter, and I couldn’t give that information.”

The priest, identified at IICSA by the reference number F65, was said to have been the subject of an allegation of oral sex with a 16-year-old boy. The investigation resulted in a file being sent to the Crown Prosecution Service but did not lead to any charges because it was deemed there was insufficient evidence.

Gove’s spokesperson said he and the Department for Education had replied fully to IICSA’s requests for information.

“In preparing his response, the secretary of state has reviewed the relevant DfE documents and the witness statements from DfE officials already provided to the inquiry. Those documents show DfE officials engaged with the relevant agencies and provided briefings to ministers – this was entirely appropriate and followed normal procedures in handling child protection issues arising in an independent school,” the spokesperson said.

“The documents contain no evidence to suggest any official or minister departed from normal procedures or acted inappropriately in any way. The secretary of state has never knowingly met F65 and has no connection with him. It is false to insinuate otherwise.

“The DfE has confirmed there is no record of the phone calls referred to in Claire Winter’s oral evidence and that no one in the DfE at the time, including the secretary of state, recalls any such phone calls.”

The Somerset MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has connections to Downside school, did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about whether he had discussed the investigation with Gove.

Lady Gillian Rees-Mogg, the MP’s mother, was the school governor with responsibility for child protection at Downside for some of this period. Her role, mentioned in evidence at the IICSA inquiry, is recorded in a July 2009 Downside school pamphlet on child protection and a subsequent Downside school parents handbook for 2010-11.

The abbot of Downside, Dom Aiden Bellenger, officiated at Jacob Rees-Mogg’s wedding in 2007, reciting a Catholic mass in Latin at the service in Canterbury Cathedral. The MP, whose constituency is next door to Downside, has spoken at Downside.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The department took the situation at Downside very seriously and worked closely with the relevant authorities to ensure the safety of all children at the school.

“On the advice of officials, ministers ordered Ofsted to conduct an emergency inspection, and the school was subsequently issued with a notice to improve. Our records show that this case was handled entirely properly by ministers and officials and the sequence of events is set out in our witness statements to the inquiry.”



