The archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, has come under increased pressure after reports that he twice reappointed a priest at the heart of a sexual abuse case.
A BBC investigation found Cottrell renewed David Tudor’s contract as area dean in Essex on two occasions while Cottrell was bishop of Chelmsford.
Tudor had previously been barred from ministry for five years for having sex with a 16-year-old girl who was a pupil at a school where he was chaplain. He paid her compensation and was banned from being alone with children.
Cottrell admitted that things “could have been handled differently”.
The scandal is the second high-profile crisis to envelop the Church of England in recent months.
The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, announced his resignation in November in the wake of the Makin report, which found Welby could have brought the serial abuser John Smyth to justice if he had reported him to police in 2013.
Cottrell will take over as the church’s most senior clergyman when Welby steps down next month.
A spokesperson for Cottrell said: “Even though David Tudor was already area dean when Stephen Cottrell arrived in the diocese in 2010, as the then diocesan bishop of Chelmsford he accepts responsibility for David Tudor remaining as area dean.
“On reflection, he acknowledges this could have been handled differently, and regrets that it wasn’t, but his focus throughout his time as bishop of Chelmsford was, with the help of safeguarding professionals, to understand, assess and manage the risk of David Tudor.
“No one advised him that David Tudor should not continue as an area dean.”
Tudor was banned for life from ministry this year after admitting what the Church of England described as serious sexual abuse involving two girls aged 15 and 16.
He had previously been suspended from ministry for five years in 1988.
He had admitted, according to a tribunal document, to having sex with a 16-year-old girl he met when she was a pupil at a school where he was chaplain. He paid compensation to the victim.
However, he returned to working in the church in 1994.
A BBC investigation found Tudor was reappointed as a senior member of clergy in Essex in 2013 and 2018. Cottrell would have known that Tudor was banned from working one-on-one with children.
Cottrell said it was “not possible” to remove Tudor from office until fresh complaints were made against him in 2019.
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In a statement before the new developments, he said he had faced a “horrible and intolerable” situation when he became bishop of Chelmsford, having been briefed on the situation in 2010.
The spokesperson added that “all the risks around David Tudor were regularly reviewed by safeguarding professionals and this was the main focus” and “when further action could be taken in 2019, it was”.
Two bishops have criticised Cottrell’s decisions. The bishop of Gloucester, the Right Rev Rachel Treweek, said she felt “shock and dismay” at the latest revelations.
She told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend: “I think there are very important conversations and processes to go on that are not going to take place over public media.
“I want to live process well. I want to live relationship well. It’s where we have failed, so much, as the church, in keeping relationship at the heart of our processes and I want that to run through every aspect of the church.
“You asked me if it made a difference. I do think there are big questions to be looked at.
“I heard that news with shock and dismay but I want the proper process to take place in order that we shape ourselves as the right sort of church going forward, and that, for me, is the big question.”
The bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, posted on X that the news meant Cottrell would not be a “credible voice as the leadership of the Church of England”.
Source: theguardian.com
