I was alerted to Father Timothy Hopkins having all charges dropped by the Criminal Prosecution Service regarding his alleged sexual assault on a young girl at a previous parish. At the time of the police investigation he was parish priest at St Mary’s in Denton and also on the Board of Governors of St Bede’s College in Manchester. Well that kindly act by the CPS must have been met with great gasps of relief by the Salford Diocese and especially St Bede’s College, an institution historically mired with clerical sexual abuse.
This morning I googled Fr Tim and there it was in last Thursday’s edition of the Manchester Evening News. Thank the good lord. The CPS must have realised the police did not have enough on him to win the case in court. However the old bishop, Terry Brain, is a man who knows a thing or two about priestly sexual abuse, decided to ask Tim to step down from his parochial duties at St Mary’s because Tim had had such a stressful time. The Bishop told him to lie low for a few months. Why an innocent man should have to lie low is beyond me but that is the way of the world today. When a priest in our diocese of Elphin was wrongfully accused of similar and was investigated and cleared, he went straight back to his clerical duties.
So I started to wander what Old Tim was doing on this enforced furlough and I looked up the Directory of Priests of the Salford Diocese and guess what? Fr Tim is not there, his name has been deleted, it has vamoosed. Why should they strike him off the register when the man is supposedly innocent, when he is just letting loose his stresses in some comfortable environment.
The MEN went on to say that although stripped of his parish duties, he was still a governor of St Bede’s College in Manchester. Good I thought and I followed my nose and googled the Board of Governors of St Bede’s College in Manchester. Lo and behold, there was a whole new raft of governors. I knew they had been advertising in the Tablet but it was the first time I had seen the new list. From a paltry few clerics who had been holding the fort since April of this year there were now eleven but nowhere on the list could I see Fr Tim.
Besides the florid Quinlan and the old bish, there were the stalwart McMahon and two clerics who had joined in April, Daly and Parkinson and then a strong body of new laymen. Not new exactly because Ellwood, the vice chair and Byrne, had been there before. Byrne having resigned in March following legal advice but obviously having fresh advice which brought him back into the fray again. Lannigan, the accountant, was there, he had never left and there were three new laymen, a chap called Richards and another called Niven. I do not know these two boys but undoubtedly over the next few months we will familiarise ourselves with each other. Last but not least and surprisingly but not that surprisingly, when you look at the overall picture there was Des Coffey’s name insanely smiling at me from the web page. Des, I think went to Xav’s, so what was he doing on Bede’s board, a bit of a comedown for the old alma mater, mind you he was a bit of a teacher in his heyday, but wait a minute I know why he is there, it’s because he is one of the shining lights at Manchester City Football Club where for some years he has been trying to instal some modicum of knowledge and education into admittedly not the sharpest tools in the box, the superstars of tomorrow, the kids at Platt Lane.
Somebody somewhere in the debate about Bede’s future suggested that although it looked like the school was going down the pan and that the diocese would not hinder its fall, the bish would make big bucks by selling off its assets but tendered the notion that there was another way out if Sheikh Mansour, or whatever is the name of the ruling arab at Eastlands, might take over the school. Never a truer word was said, Coffey, who was described to me as a meagre slime-ball by somebody who knows him, completely out of his depth but pretending to be a big cheese, must be the first step in that process and also he only lives round the corner on St Werburgh’s Road and the school will not have to pay any travelling expenses. I also understand that Kearney of Bede’s is taking over the Spanish Department for the start of next year with Pelligrini as his assistant when they both lose their jobs at the end of the season.
So there I was confronted by the names of the brand new board, so I thought I would ring up my mate at Companies House to ask when this new board had been incorporated. He looked up his files and with a knowing smirk he informed me that I was up the pole, there has been no new directors (Board members) appointed since the furore of last March when Lanigan really had his ball and a whole crowd of laymen stepped out and two worthy priests stepped in again.
Now it strikes me that along the way there are a few porkies being told. The Bishop says he has offered Tim a furlough but at the same time he has struck him off his Directory of Priests. The MEN says Tim is still a Governor of St Bede’s College in Manchester but the College on their website say he isn’t but that we do have a new Board of Governors, but Companies House says it doesn’t.
Somehow somebody will have to get to the bottom of this riddle and I suppose it will have to be me. If there is anybody who on reading this can shed some light, step forward but in the end time will surely tell.
Paul? Things have gone quiet – are you really not going to post my comment? Which one of your excuses are you going to use? Have I missed the point Paul? Listen, I really admire you. It takes real guts to voice anti sematic and racist rants and put them to print. You must be getting different legal advice to me. Come on Paul – don’t be a coward. Let my voice be heard.
Presumably you posted on this essay but I have no record of it. Send it me again and it will go up. I publish all comments out of fairness. I think I have only refused a couple in all my time and they were just pure crude and of no use to anybody.
Paul,
In the words of Johnny Nash, ‘There are more questions than answers’ when dealing with anything to do with the Alma Mater. The college motto should have been (in Latin, of course) ‘To tell the truth is a sign of failure’, not the usual Nunquam otio torpebat.
There are more porkies being told than Melton Mowbray knocks out in a month here. No doubt we may eventually get to the bottom of the true situation, but not as a result of anything Bede’s tells us.
Anyone currently doing any spying know anything to enlighten us?
In the words of late, unmourned Sir John Junor (another one of Maggie’s Fleet Street knighted Apologistas), I think we should be told……..
Dear Chris,
In response to your accusation of antisemitism, allow me to define this misnomer so as to clear up any misunderstanding. Semitic people are basically Arabs and North Africans. Jews are Khazar (russian) or Sephardic (spanish). To be antisemitic (which is 99% of us) is to be against the arabs not the jews.
Judaism is not a race. It is a quasi religious cult and corrupted ideology. The idea of questioning the holocaust is akin to questioning the death toll of a war. It is a matter of fact. The concept of applying emotional responses to questioning facts is pathetic and it will not work on me. It is also a regurgitation of media/zionist lies and shows an embarrassing lack of understanding.
Try again kidda
My name is Savannah and I was a victim of Fr Tim Hopkins along with my sister.
Savannah,
My email is down today so cannot email you as requested. Just give me a day to get it fixed and I will be in touch. Do not want to use your email on the other posting as the world will then have it.
Dear Paul,
I did send one through which was awaiting moderation – my personal opinion is that you are a coward and so, naturally, I suspect you decided not to post it but, in the interests of fair play, we’ll put it down to some mysterious blog disappearance technical issue. That’s fine – I’ll type it out again.
Danny boy – I remember you from school. From what I recall you had no mates, were considered a loser and smelt. I can see you are still cursed with the first two , however, I do hope you have been introduced to deodorant – there’s no ‘Zionist conspiracy’ to being hygienic is there? Trust me, water and soap can be your friend. Let them in Daniel, let them in.
I’ve been looking into your current meagre existence via your racist twitter page; wow, quite the intellect aren’t you! Such posts as:
——– “Ask yourself… Why has the human race always despised these people who call themselves Jews”?
——–“Roses are Red, Violets are blue. Your ancestors made the holocaust up. How do you feel being defined as a lie”.
——–“Im a collector of rare wwII truths. David Irving is a warrior”.
show you are nothing more than a petulant child with little to no intellect and an absolute cowardly disgrace. A complete and total waste of time. Years ago we all felt sorry for you – you were pathetic but in a rather vulnerable way, and we tried to include you in so much as we could bear the smell. Now you are just a piece of crap, kidda.
Paul you will hear from me again soon. Hopefully this time there won’t be any technical issues.
Chris
This particular comment just shows what kind of psychopathic monsters we have to deal with on a daily basis but this is as bad as I have ever read. I would not have published it except it does show the man up. No argument only bile. By the way Chris there will be no next time. Adieu.
To Paul Malpas:
Well, here in Chris, there’s a person who cannot be accused of pulling his punches whatever. Both barrels, at point-blank range.
I applaud your decision to publish it, however, I would argue it merely lowers the tone of the argument and has become totally personal, to no reasoned or sensible effect.
Insulting people on a personal level because you totally disagree with them is not my style, I’m a bit more grown-up than that, I would argue I was more grown-up than that 30 years ago.
A bit more reflection and thought before posting might not come amiss from certain quarters. As someone has argued recently, let’s keep the debate on a more sensible level and not resort to mud-slinging. In short, let’s grow up a bit.
To Paul Taylor,
As you realise I allowed Chris’s comments for display purposes only. He has been told that was his party piece and he does not get another chance. Danny by his reply has taken it in his stride and feels more sorrow for him than angst. It is however the reason why at some stage there has to be editorial control otherwise the baboons will take over the jungle.
I hope it is a lesson that every reader and contributor brings home to themselves and that of course includes me, that clear thought and individual control puts one’s arguments over far better than rant.
Eyup Chris,
That was like being mauled by a 3 month old baby… I didn’t realise the standards at St Bede’s had dropped so low as to produce barrages of that quality. Unless, of course, you never went there and you are pretending to for whatever reason. I recall Fr Dearman had a gimp called Chris.
I am truly embarrassed for you. If i wrote something that poor, i would beg someone to put an axe in my head.
Your main argument is that i smelt 20 odd years ago. I can assure you i never went near a foundary until i was at least 20 years old. You claim i had no mates but who can blame me if i had to hang around with you? Whats your surname by the way. I’m guessing you don’t have the stones to release that kind of information.
I didn’t even know i had a twitter page… Thanks for that!
If it helps, you can look up my meagre existance on my facebook page. I use that more and no doubt you will harvest a lot more ammunition than that twitter nonsense. I would like that very much!!
Is anything being done to help Father Tim, we all still miss him and pray for him.. I wrote to Pope Francis but no reply (he is a busy man) What can we do everyone is always asking have I
heard anything God will guide us I feel sure. Thanks be to God we all recognise innocence Jesus was falsely accused as was Father
tim God Bless you all who try to help him
Pat,
Read my latest blog posting “Friends of St Bede’s College in Manchester FOBCIM” for latest news on Tim. He has a whole house to himself in Crumpsall and does not seem to be attached to any parish. Still serving out his sentence according to Brain even though he has been found innocent. Now Brain has gone it seems Tim is forgotten about and might die of old age in his bishop selected hideaway.