'They should be made terrified to offend' - church sex abuse survivor

A survivor of child sexual abuse has said it could be stopped if "perpetrators are made to be terrified to commit the offence".

Nikella Holmes and other survivors, who were giving evidence to a Stormont committee, also repeated their call for an independent public inquiry into church sexual abuse.

Nikella was abused by a youth leader at her former church, Gary Thompson, who was jailed in 2024.

The survivors were speaking to the Executive Office Committee, which examines the work of the department headed by the first and deputy first ministers.

MLAs on the committee were told an independent public inquiry into child abuse in churches is a "key recommendation" of unpublished research on the matter.

The survivors also called for those three research reports, which were sent to the ministers last July, to be published.

Nikella was 15 years old when she was indecently assaulted by Northern Ireland's former chief fire officer Gary Thompson, who was 38 at the time in 2006.

He was her church youth leader and she said she was groomed by him from the moment she met him.

Thompson was was jailed for eight months after admitting two counts of indecent assault.

Representing the Interfaith Clerical Abuse Survivors Group, Nikella told MLAs: "We have the evidence sitting there, ready to go, about how we can make changes to make our churches safe."

The Ballymena woman told the committee: "We have all the tools at hand, so I just want to get to work."

Another survivor Tony Gribben, who was abused by the Catholic priest Father Malachy Finnegan, said the recommendations in the studies were "very clear and very simple" and included a public inquiry.

He said an inquiry should be driven by "truth, justice and accountability".

The research was commissioned by the devolved government to help ministers to consider policy on the issue.

One piece gathered the stories of survivors of abuse in what are termed "faith settings" – which can include churches, schools and other places where clergy and leaders in religious organisations abused children.

Another report focused on historical records – and a third examined safeguarding policies and practices in the faith sector.

Tony, from the Dromore Group of survivors, said they wanted to meet the first and deputy first ministers.

He went on: "What's the hold-up? One of the hold-ups could be budget, but let's sit down and talk about that."

Patrick Corrigan from Amnesty International said the research was the "most comprehensive piece of work done yet" on clerical child abuse in Northern Ireland.

He said the recent revelations about safeguarding failures in the Presbyterian Church showed "this is not simply a matter of historical abuse – it's a present-day reality."