Abused - but church forgot me; Letters.

THE news item that dominated our television screens on August 8 was of (yet another) former Coventry priest, James Robinson, appearing in court on child abuse charges.

I watched with some incredulity as the spokesman for the Archdiocese of Birmingham, Peter Jennings, read a bland, scripted statement saying how seriously the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham took the issue of "child protection".

Such a statement might have been given greater credibility had it not been scripted but had come from the heart.

However, more importantly the statement that the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham takes seriously the issue of child protection does not ring true for the many victims.

Nobody from the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham came knocking on my door to ask if I needed help or support following my abuse by another Catholic priest.

Instead I was ignored, forgotten and considered unimportant, like many before me.

Name and address withheld. Editor's note: The priest who abused this correspondent, who at the time was in a Catholic-run orphanage, was jailed many years later for his crimes.