Bimingham, England
27 May 2005

The Plater College Foundation has issued fraud proceedings against four Roman Catholic Archbishops of England and Wales.

They are Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster; Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham; Peter Smith, Archbishop of Cardiff and Patrick Kelly, Archbishop of Liverpool.

The proceedings were issued in the Chancery Division of the High Court, at Birmingham, this Friday afternoon.

Also sued, are the Catholic Education Service and its Chief Exective, Oona Stannard and a member of its legal staff, Martin Bradshaw, along with 14 present and former members of the Governing Body of Plater College, Oxford, including its former Chair, Leo Curran, QC and its present Principal, David Mason.

The Foundation represents staff and students opposed to the intended closure of Plater College, Oxford, of which the four Roman Catholic archbishops are trustees.

Counsel for the Foundation, John Rhys-Burgess, who is himself a former Plater College student, said:

"It is our view that no valid reasons for closing the College have ever been given. On the contrary, the stated reasons for the closure were manifestly false, misleading, self-serving and pretextual.

Upon any rational and objective analysis of the statements variously made by the Defendants to justify the closure, the unavoidable conclusion is that they could only have been made with the deliberate intention to deceive.

This has informed our conscientious belief that the Trustees and those advising them have attempted to carry out what can only be regarded as a callous and cynical fraud upon the College.

Whilst the Governing Body appear to be innocent of any dishonest intent, they are nevertheless complicit in the wrongful conduct of the Trustees and the Catholic Education Service, since they ought to have taken steps to prevent the intended fraud but have failed to take any action."