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The Church of England will vote next month on outsourcing policing of safeguarding issues to an independent watchdog, amid an ongoing fallout from an inquiry into historic allegations of abuse.

The General Synod, otherwise known as the Church’s parliament, will debate and vote on the changes in February, with the lead Bishop of Safeguarding admitting that the church had failed to act on, and then deliberately covered up, abuse.

Synod, which includes Bishops, clergy, and church-goers, will sit for its first session since the resignation of the Archbishopof Canterbury Justin Welby last month over safeguarding failures.

Dr Welby stood down in November after a damning report exposed a “conspiracy of silence” about the abuse of children and young men perpetrated by barrister John Smyth.

About 130 boys are believed to have been victims of Smyth, who died in 2018. When he was discovered, Smyth was allowed to move abroad with the knowledge of church officials, where he continued his abuse.

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The Church of England has now proposed a new independent safeguarding approach to stop a cover-up happening again, with the first three days of Synod focussing on these issues. There are two options, which will be voted on in February.

The first would see all safeguarding officers currently working in dioceses, cathedrals, and the national church transferred to work for a new independent organisation.

The second would see most national staff move to a new non-church watchdog, but other diocesan and cathedral officers remaining with their current church employers.

Both options would see their safeguarding work scrutinised by a second external body, which would give victims somewhere to appeal to if they think their cases have not been dealt with properly.

The Church’s lead bishop for safeguarding, Bishop of Stepney, Joanne Grenfell, is backing the first option, which she said is “sufficiently radical to bring about the fundamental change we need”.

She added: “I believe that bringing together all our safeguarding colleagues into one external body with specialist line management and accountability is the best way to address the current gaps in provision”.

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In other matters to be discussed, a motion will also be brought to debate how to encourage people from working class backgrounds to join the ministry in the Church of England.

The Synod will also discuss the ongoing use of prayers to bless same-sex couples’ relationships. Bishop of Leicester, Martyn Snow, revealed on Friday that an expected vote on whether the Church of England should allow clergy to enter into same-sex civil marriages will be pushed back.

A vote on the issue had been expected for the July meeting, but this has now been pushed back to a later date while more theological study is done on the issue. Bishop Snow recognised that the decision was “disappointing for LGBTQ+ people”, adding: “I am very conscious that there are people who are frustrated by that. I’m personally disappointed but I’m still confident that we can get there.”

The Synod will also consider proposed measures to make it easier to appoint Bishops, by slightly reducing the majority needed in the voting. One proposed measure would remove the current anonymous voting system.

If accepted by the Synod then the changes would affect the process to select a new Archbishop of Canterbury, which is being overseen by the former head of Mi5 Lord Jonathan Evans.

Footage from a taxi dashcam captured the moment Axel Rudakubana arrived at the Taylor Swift-themed dance class, where he murdered three girls.

The video shows Rudakubana, who had booked the taxi under a fake name, refusing to pay for the journey before getting out and going through the doors of The Hart Space, in Southport, on 29 July 2024.

A week before the deadly attack, doorbell footage shows the moment Rudakubana’s father stopped him getting a taxi to his former school.

On Thursday, after admitting three murders and ten attempted murders, Rudakubana was jailed for 52 years at Liverpool Crown Court.

A woman has been sentenced to four years in prison for causing the death of an eight-month-old baby by dangerous driving.

Bridget Curtis, 71, had previously pleaded guilty to causing the death of Mabli Cariad Hall outside Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.

Mabli was airlifted to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff after she was hit by a white BMW on Wednesday 21 June 2023.

She was later moved to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children where she died four days later.

‘Entirely tragic’

Swansea Crown Court heard Mabli and her family were visiting her grandmother, who was receiving end-of-life care at the hospital, when the crash happened.

Prosecuting, Craig Jones said it was an “entirely tragic” case.

He said Mabli was “very nearly nine months” when she died, a day when the weather conditions were “fine and dry”.

Mabli was with her father in a grassed area under some trees opposite the hospital’s entrance.

“Mr Hall put Mabli back into her pushchair and was adjusting the straps when he heard the sound of an approaching vehicle,” Mr Jones said.

The court heard that Curtis had given her daughter a lift to the hospital for an appointment and had stopped the car outside the main entrance.

After she was dropped off, her daughter went to retrieve her handbag from the back of the car but was “unable to see the bag and tapped the window to attract her mother’s attention”.

“With the engine running, [the defendant] turned around from her seat to look in the back,” he said.

“The defendant had failed to switch off the vehicle and had failed to place the car, which was an automatic-geared vehicle, into a parked setting.”

In a period of four and a half seconds, the vehicle reached a top speed of 29 miles per hour and travelled a distance of 28 metres.

‘So beautiful’

In a victim impact statement, Rob Hall told the court he remembered Mabli “smiling at [him], making her cute noises”.

He said the “violent revving, screeching tyres” of the car was something he saw and heard “daily”.

Mr Hall said that after Mabli’s death, his family “were numb, felt helpless and destroyed”.

“This struggle continues to this day, and will always be there. Life from then until now has been horrendous. It’s been so hard to live this life,” he said.

“It’s exhausting, we’re drained, and I just don’t know how we recover from such trauma.”

Mabli’s mother, Gwen Hall, also read a victim impact statement from the witness box, telling the court the day Mabli died was the day her life “irreversibly changed for the worse”.

“She had said ‘Mamma’ for the first time only the day before,” she said.

Ms Hall said the family was “heartbroken”, but that the word “does not do justice to how broken and destroyed we are as a family”.

“Everyone needs to remember that Mabli was eight months old, she was so bright, so beautiful and so full of love and life. She was the apple of all our eye,” Ms Hall added.

“She was my best friend, my shadow, my second skin.”

‘Devastation of their lives’

In mitigation, Mr John Dye said the defendant had “led a blameless, law-abiding life”.

He said she had shown “extremely genuine remorse” and had written a letter to Mabli’s family.

The court heard Curtis had “ongoing mobility issues” and had caring responsibilities for her adult daughter.

Handing down his sentence of four years in prison, Judge Geraint Walters said “loving parents, siblings and a wider extended family suffered the devastation of their lives”.

“That is because that day, they suffered that which each parent dreads, the loss of a much-cherished child, then just eight months old,” he said.

“Her life was taken from her senselessly, and indeed needlessly, as a result of your actions.”

The judge said the case was aggravated by the fact that others were struck by the vehicle, namely Mabli’s father and uncle.

As well as the custodial sentence, Curtis was also disqualified from driving for eight years and would have to undergo a driving test before she could re-apply for a licence.

Addressing the media outside court, Mabli’s grandfather, Paul Sambrook, thanked “everyone who [had] been part of the process to secure justice for Mabli Cariad”.

“We’ve waited over 18 months for this day and finally this nightmarish chapter has come to an end,” he said.

“We’ll go home now and start to live our lives without Mabli. She was the sunshine who lit up our lives in so many ways, but now we have to focus on helping the other children of the family to cope with the loss and find a new way forward.

“If there is anything to learn from the pain and bereavement, this is what it is. Take care every time you sit behind the wheel of your car, think carefully about your own safety as well as the safety of others.”

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Iwan Jenkins from CPS Wales told Sky News that nothing could change “the tragic events of that day”.

“Although the criminal case has concluded, our thoughts remain with Mabli’s family over their heart-breaking loss and with everybody who received injuries on that day,” he added.

Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship in the US has been blocked by a judge.

Judge John Coughenour has issued a temporary restraining order to clamp down on Donald Trump’s ban, which would have seen undocumented migrants in the US unable to register their children as American citizens.

Coughenour claimed the order was “blatantly unconstitutional”, and his intervention has seen the move halted for the next 14 days.

“I have been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case whether the question presented was as clear,” the judge said.

Judge John Coughenour has issued a temporary restraining order to clamp down on Donald Trump’s ban

REUTERS