Betrayal: A Personal Story

by J S Ayliffe, Cathy Wilcox (Illustrator)

267 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 20, 2026

Reviews

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at a local bookstore without knowing much about it. A memoir from someone who remained within the Catholic Church while confronting its role in covering up child sexual abuse immediately caught my attention.

My lasting impression is that J.S. Ayliffe is brave. It would have been easier to leave, to defend the institution, or to look away. Instead, he refuses to turn away from the pain of survivors or the harm the Church caused.

One thing that stayed with me was how close to home these stories felt. Reading on Manly Wharf while the author described familiar places was a reminder that these crimes are not distant or abstract. They happened in communities much like our own.

Part confession, part courtroom reporting, and part testimony to survivors and their families, the book occasionally feels tonally uneven. Even so, I'm glad I read it. More than anything, I'm grateful for people willing to tell difficult stories.

[Ashleigh Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not an easy read. It’s a summary overview of one of the Catholic Church’s most egregious offenses and how it came to be. I was expecting this to be more about this one person’s experiences in keeping the secrets, but it backed off of that and became more of a historical piece about various offenders, cover-ups, victims, locations, and trials. I was hoping for a more personal story. It was still good, but if that’s what you’re hoping for too, be prepared for it to be a bit different than that.