LONDON (Reuters) – A Church of England bishop on Monday urged its incoming interim leader to quit over his handling of a sexual abuse case, only weeks after his predecessor was forced to resign as archbishop of Canterbury in a similar case.
The BBC said Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, had in a previous diocese let a priest keep his job despite knowing that the Church had barred him from being alone with children and that he had paid compensation to a sexual abuse victim.
Cottrell is due to take over temporarily next month from Justin Welby as archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of millions of Anglicans worldwide.
The bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, was one of the first senior voices to urge Welby to step down and also called on Cottrell to resign, telling the BBC: “It completely undermines his credibility that this case was not acted on.”
Cottrell was briefed about priest David Tudor when he became bishop of Chelmsford in 2010, and worked with professionals to minimise the risk.
But he said in a statement that he had not had legal grounds to suspend Tudor until nine years later, when police arrested him.
“The situation I faced when I became Bishop of Chelmsford was horrible and intolerable – most of all for the survivors and victims,” he said. “I am deeply sorry that we were not able to take action earlier, but that was the situation I inherited.”
Tudor was banned from ministry for life by a Church tribunal in October after admitting sexual misconduct.
The BBC reported that Tudor had paid the woman who alleges he sexually abused her 10,000 pounds ($12,600) in compensation.
The Church of England said on Sunday that Tudor’s abuse was a “grievous breach of trust” and that it would commission an independent review of its safeguarding practices.
Welby had been archbishop of Canterbury for 11 years. A report found he had not done enough to bring to justice lawyer John Smyth, who subjected over 100 boys and young men to “brutal and horrific” physical and sexual abuse over 40 years. ($1 = 0.7916 pounds)
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
