WITH its luscious green cliff tops, white sandy beaches and glistening coves, Caldey Island looks like a picture-perfect paradise.
But the tiny island off the coast of Tenby, Wales, has a dark past – with children being systematically sexually abused on what has now been dubbed ‘Britain’s paedophile paradise island’ for more 50 years.
These children, many of whom were orphans and particularly vulnerable, were either island residents or coaxedon day trips from the mainland during school holidays.
They were who lived on the holy island, where Roman Catholic pilgrims routinely came for religious retreats.
But the worst of them all was Father Thaddeus Kotik, who moved to Caldey from his native Poland – where he had fought in the Free Polish army during WW2 – in 1947.
In 1956, he was ordained as a priest and joined the strict Cistercian order of monks, and set about befriending the families who regularly visited, along with the handful of farming families who lived there.
He gave them handmade chocolates and fresh produce, and invited the children to see the dairy.
Then, after gaining the trust of the devout parents, Kotik preyed on their daughters, luring them to places where there was no risk of detection – a room beside the dairy, the woods, or isolated rocky coves near the beach.
He also volunteered to babysit while their parents went out, pulling the sleepy youngsters from their beds to sexually assault them, and taking them to the monastery garage, where he kept a chest full of sweets.
Once inside the garage, he would lock the door, allow the children to eat as many sweets as they wanted.
Then he’d lift them to his lap, remove their clothes and sexually assault them.
‘He wore Y-fronts back to front’
Evil monk Father Thaddeus Kotik, stationed at the island’s monastery from 1947 until his death in 1992, never faced any criminal charges despite countless claims against him.
However, six victims were paid compensation after a 2016 civil case found the Cistercian priest had sexually abused them between 1972 and 1987.
One victim – who received a £19,000 payout – told The Sun she was advised against taking action by her mum and some former islanders who didn’t want her to “blacken the good name of Caldey”;.
She made the trip to the island over school holidays and was preyed on almost every day by Kotik – also claiming she saw him abuse others, including babies.
The victim told us how the priest would wear Y-fronts back to front to seem harmless and naive, and “to pretend he didn’t know how it all worked”;.
“We just thought, ‘This is an adult who is interested in us.’”;
His hands were very rough, and he always stank of BO. We would get infections because his hands were so dirty.”;
Victim
She continued: “What I noticed about Father Thaddeus, he always abused [the children of] vulnerable families.”;
She described coach loads of kids from care often visiting the island for days at a time, who he would prey on as they visited the Abbey grounds, often after luring them into the garden.
“The other monks said he was a bit of a joker, a bit of a child,”; she explained. “They didn’t take him that seriously, but they knew there was something dodgy about him.”;
Referring to the other monks and staff, she said: “The whole island was like a cult, it was a feudal hierarchy. You had them at the top and then everybody else underneath.”;
She claims in 1990 she told her mum – who died several years ago – about the abuse but was warned not to report it or Kotik would be segregated from the other monks on the island.
“Father Thaddeus would abuse us three or four times a day,”; she recalled. “His hands were very rough, and he always stank of BO. We would get infections because his hands were so dirty.”;
She described how Kotik was “so compulsive”; and would invite kids to a makeshift office he had near the dairy.
His myna bird would chatter and he’d offer them biscuits before abusing them.
She said the Lincoln biscuits had “lumps all over them”;.
“I remember thinking they were the tears in my eyes and how sad they were. Thinking of somebody’s eyes.”;
The victim finally stopped going to the island regularly at the age of 16.
By then, she had gone through puberty, so Kotik had lost interest in her.
But the trauma has remained, and she was later raped by someone linked to the Catholic church when she was 15.
“I felt I didn’t have any rights over my body, I didn’t feel I could say, ‘No, I don’t want to do this’,”; she said.
“What I tend to do now is just avoid people because I was never brought up to have the self confidence to say no.
“What I’ve realised is I’d rather be busy and lonely than in a relationship.
“When a relationship gets remotely sexual I’m right there and it’s too loaded and too many conflicting feelings.”;
Monk selfie ban
In a letter from an island resident seen by The Sun, it was alleged that a “grooming”; culture still persists and that offenders are “protected”;.
Earlier in 2024, safeguarding officer Maria Battle, former chair of the Howell Dda University Health Board in Wales, was appointed to oversee the island.
She is a director of the Caldey island Estate Company Ltd which has led anti-abuse campaigners to question her independence.
Since her appointment, a page has appeared on the island’s website saying Caldey operates under the Catholic Safeguarding Standard Agency.
In May, she announced that the Abbey has appointed Independent Safeguarding Consultant and former Assistant Police & Crime Commissioner for South Wales, Ms Pickles OBE, to lead a “thorough review”; into historical claims of child abuse.
Victim testimonies from the Seventies collected by Ms Pickles suggest Kotik was a “serial and prolific abuser of children”;, often in “plain sight”; of others on the island.
The report states there were multiple other occasions where accusations of child sexual abuse were not appropriately logged or reported to the authorities.
Multiple men with convictions for sexual offences have been known to have resided on the island at various times from the Seventies to the present day.
Six years ago, Kevin O’Connell – who was also abused as a child on the island – created the Caldey Island Survivors Campaign after many others wrote to him about what had happened to them, and says he has so far collected 59 victim accounts.
In December last year, a safeguarding review authored by consultant social worker Jan Pickles concluded victims of sexual abuse on the island were treated in a hostile, heartless and cruel way.
In response, Caldey Abbey, which commissioned the report, apologised for the suffering caused.
It was also revealed in the review that a number of sex offenders had spent time on Caldey Island.
This includedPaul Ashton, who lived there for seven yearsusing an alias while on the run from police.
He had unrestricted access to the IT system and used it to download indecent images of children.
A visitor who discovered his true identity informed police and he was later jailed.
When he was discovered at Caldey Island in 2011, more indecent images were found on his computer in the monastery.
The visitor believed he had been operating a distribution network for indecent images of children, masquerading as a cleaning company.
Two other men, Father John Shannon and John Cronin, convicted of sexual offences involving children, have also been linked to Caldey Island.
A string of safeguarding recommendations were implemented following the review, including strict limits on contact the members of the monastic community can have on visitors.
The monks are not allowed to give religious or pastoral advice to visitors even if asked or pose for a selfie with them, and under a “no touch”; policy will be obliged to report any accidental physical contact.
Following renewed calls for a public inquiry, renowned public enquiries lawyer Michael Imperato said he would be prepared to take on the case and believes children could have been sexually assaulted on the island at “industrial scale”;.
Ms Pickles’ review into what happened on the island involved thorough contact with 16 victims of child sexual abuse.
It is understood Ms Pickles accepts Mr O’Connell’s now 59 victim accounts and notes more victims – up to 19 – contacted journalist Dr Amanda Gearing following media coverage in 2017.
Ms Pickles said the abbey had responded in a “heartless way”; to victims who were “very vulnerable and very damaged”;.
The review outlined several missed opportunities and said there appeared to have been a failure of leadership at the highest level.
It said repeated and frequent allegations of sexual abuse against Kotik had not been reported to the authorities as the law of that time required.
“This strategy has led the abbey’s approach to be seen as hostile and cruel,”; it said.
Father Jan Rossey, who took on the role of abbot in 2023, said he’d read the review with “deep sorrow and regret”; and that it was “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.”;
He said safeguarding was now his priority and he had put measures in place to ensure the correct response to any allegations would be followed.
He added: “Since becoming Abbot, I have ensured that many safeguarding improvements have been put in place. These are detailed in the review.
“I have also reached out through Jan Pickles OBE to everyone who gave evidence offering to meet with them in person to apologise, to offer support and to thank them for their courage.
“I thank everyone who bravely came forward to give evidence of their experience to the review and I promise that I will do my utmost to prevent abuse from ever happening again on Caldey Island.”;
