One of the victims of Father Michael James Callaghan, a former housemaster at Ampleforth College who was recently found guilty of sexually abusing boys under his care, has spoken out in detail about the sexual abuse he suffered at the boarding school known as the Catholic Eton.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, the victim describes how being at the prestigious school – Ampleforth’s yearly fees are £46,74 – felt like “we were in a paedophiles” cafeteria” where “the monks picked us off”.
Michael James Callaghan, 71, who was known to pupils as Father James, was a monk of the English Benedictine congregation who live at Ampleforth Abbey, which is co-located with the college. He was recently found guilty of 12 charges of indecent assault against the victim, named as Thomas in the Telegraph article, and a further charge against another boy in 2013.
Sentencing the monk to seven years in prison, Judge Richard Clews described Callaghan as “cynical and manipulative in the extreme”.
The Telegraph reports that Callaghan had been a teacher before joining the monastery and then was a language tutor at Ampleforth College for a few years before being appointed as housemaster of St Wilfrid’s, in charge of caring for the approximately 60 boys who lived there. He became housemaster the same year that the victim enrolled at the school, aged 13.
Thomas was sent to board at the school because his family were often overseas due to his father’s career. His parents, described by the Telegraph as devout Catholics, were drawn to the elite public school in large part because of the emphasis it placed on the religious education of its students, which was centred on the community of Benedictine monks at the abbey who lived and worked within the school.
Thomas tells the Telegraph that he was appalled by the revelation that the school likely knew that Callaghan had previously sought treatment due to struggling to control his sexual desires for adolescent boys.
“Ampleforth had that letter from a psychosexual specialist who had assessed Father James,” says Thomas. “To make a monster like that a housemaster in charge of teenage boys is, at the very, very, very best, outright stupidity and mismanagement.
“I think Ampleforth were desperate to keep their status as a monastic school so they overlooked a lot of issues. They put a man they knew was a paedophile in charge of a boarding house of boys and stood back and watched for four years as he paraded me around.”
Thomas describes how not only was he groomed, but his whole family was too.
“My mother was incredibly charmed by him,” Thomas says. “She was going through her own renewal of faith and having a charming Catholic priest who would not only look after her son but also come and say Mass in our living room was a delight to her.”
The meeting with Thomas’s mother also marked an increase in Callaghan’s physical displays of affection towards the teenager, the Telegraph reports. “He saw that she and I kissed on the cheeks when we greeted, so then he started kissing me on the cheeks when we greeted,” says Thomas.
In the years since Thomas attended, numerous revelations about Ampleforth’s staff – both religious and lay – abusing pupils have come to light.
In 1996, Father Bernard Green was found guilty on charges of indecently assaulting a 13-year-old pupil as he slept in the dormitory. Green received two years’ probation at Ryedale magistrates’ court for the incident and was removed from his teaching post.
Between 2004 and 2006, North Yorkshire Police investigated allegations of child sexual abuse at Ampleforth dating back to the 1960s. It led to the convictions of Father Piers Grant-Ferris on 20 counts of indecent assault with boys in his care, and of Father Gregory Carroll for offences against 10 pupils between 1979 and 1987, the Telegraph reports.
By 2020, the Department for Education claimed the school was failing in regard to the safeguarding of its pupils, and the education secretary at the time, Gavin Williamson, banned it from admitting new pupils. In April 2021, Williamson reversed his decision
Ofsted later gave Ampleforth the all clear, and the school has emphasised that two Ofsted surveys found 100 per cent of parents felt their child was safe and happy.
But Thomas says: “You have to remember that these parents are paying tens of thousands of pounds per year for the privilege of sending their children there. It’s hard for them to admit that they’re spending that much to send their children into the lions’ den.”
In a statement given to the press after Callaghan's trial, Ampleforth College said: “Ampleforth College deplores abuse and offers a heartfelt apology to the victims and their families for the profound suffering and pain that Michael James Callaghan has inflicted upon them. We acknowledge past failings and feel great sorrow at the terrible betrayal of trust."
The institution, founded in 1802, has long been one of Britain’s foremost public schools. Its alumni include Rupert Everett, James Norton, James O’Brien, Lord Fellowes, Lord Bamford, Sir Antony Gormley, as well as Hamish Badenoch, the husband of Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party.
Photo: Ampleforth Abbey and College (credit: ampleforthcollege.org.uk).
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