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Monday, 2nd November 2009 Change Date Latest Issue

Ex-Bishop admits to sex shame past

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Published Date: 04 August 2008
A FORMER Bishop of Edinburgh has confessed his part in a sex assault on a woman more than 60 years ago.
As Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway was the most senior Anglican cleric in Scotland.

But in his new book, the 74-year-old retired churchman reveals how, as a schoolboy, he held down a lady while others ravished her.

"I've been wrestling with this for a number of years," said Holloway, who retired eight years ago.

Holloway was nine years old when he worked as a messenger boy at his local Co-op store in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire.

"It was in a storeroom that the attack on a female worker took place.

The sex attack is disclosed in his memoirs, to be published this month, Between the Monster and the Saint: Reflections on the Human Condition.

He writes: "Mr Self Importance (the ring-leader) gave the signal and the men grabbed the woman and lifted her onto the table on her back.

"Though she struggled a bit, it seemed to me to be more of a lark than a lynching and she didn't cry out for help.

"I took hold of her ankles and lifted her legs onto the table.

Mr Self Importance then groped her. It was all over."





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  • Last Updated: 04 August 2008 10:26 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Daft Old Git,

04/08/2008 12:32:52
With a name like Mr Self Importance he should be easily traced and brought to justice
2

Ritzio,

04/08/2008 12:44:43
"I've been wrestling with this for a number of years," said Holloway, who retired eight years ago.

Only for a number of years? He's 74 FFS!! I take it that for a long time it didn't bother his conscience at all, then....

"Though she struggled a bit, it seemed to me to be more of a lark than a lynching and she didn't cry out for help.

"I took hold of her ankles and lifted her legs onto the table.

Mr Self Importance then groped her. It was all over."

Fine words for an ex-Bishop. All I can say is that he and I have very different ideas about what constitutes a lark.

3

alex paterson,

edinburgh 04/08/2008 13:03:55
Burn the Bishop and let us all watch.
4

Finbarr Saunders,

04/08/2008 13:29:00
Or, better still, bash him!
5

Mallory,

Edinburgh 04/08/2008 13:38:41
Has Plod read this 'confession'?
6

James (1),

04/08/2008 15:29:52
If only he was gay then it would be news worthy!
7

Richard Head,

04/08/2008 15:40:16
Disgusting recollection.
8

Douglas,

Bathgate 04/08/2008 18:49:27
As a nine-year-old he may have been given the benefit of the doubt for not coming forward. To wait and go public when it's all but sure that nothing can or will be done speaks to the moral fibre of Holy Willies of any stripe.
Good luck with the book bishop and thanks for the guidance on the path of righteousness.
9

,

04/08/2008 19:12:39
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
10

Julian.,

edinburgh 05/08/2008 00:59:05
#2,

He was talking about what he thought when he was 9. Hardly comparable to what you think now.
11

S'me,

Edinburgh 05/08/2008 07:41:00
If only you lot above were as honest as this man, Everyone has something in their past they would like not to have done... try reading the book before you come up with easy, self important jibes.

 

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