The Church of England’s second-most senior bishop, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, is facing calls to resign over his handling of a sex abuse case.
Mr Cottrell is due to take on many of the soon-to-step-down Archbishop of Canterbury’s official functions temporarily from January 6, when Justin Welby quits over failures in the handling of a separate sex abuse case in the Church.
But Mr Cottrell’s position has been called into question after a BBC investigation which reported he had, when Bishop of Chelmsford, let priest David Tudor stay in post in the diocese despite knowing Tudor had both been barred by the Church from being alone with children and paid compensation to a sexual abuse victim.
The Church of England said the BBC programme had showed a “catalogue of past safeguarding decisions that allowed someone who was considered a risk in the 1980s to return to ministry in the 1990s”.
It added: “This should never have happened.”
Responding to the BBC investigation, a spokesperson for Mr Cottrell said it had been a “highly unsatisfactory and problematic case”.
They said Mr Cottrell had been in “an invidious situation (he) lived with every day that he was Bishop of Chelmsford until he was able to take action in 2019” in suspending the priest “following new information”.
The spokesperson said despite Mr Cottrell having been “fully briefed” about Tudor in his first week in office at Chelmsford Diocese in 2010, it was only nine years later “when fresh complaints were made against David Tudor that there was an opportunity to remove the risk”.
It was five years after that, in October of this year, that Tudor was banned from ministry for life after admitting what the Church described as serious sexual abuse involving two girls aged 15 and 16 when he was a priest in the Diocese of Southwark.
A woman who was paid compensation by Tudor over claims he sexually abused her as a child told the BBC that Mr Cottrell’s failure to act when he was told about the payment means he should “leave the Church”.
Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley said she feels it is “impossible” for Mr Cottrell to remain Archbishop of York or for him to lead the Church of England.
Asked about whether Mr Cottrell is the right man to lead the Church, Dr Hartley told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “My personal view is that the evidence before us makes it impossible for Stephen Cottrell to be that person in which we have confidence and trust to drive the change that is needed.”
She said it is also impossible for him to remain as Archbishop of York because “he will also be, for a period of time at least, responsible for being the figurehead of the whole Church of England and I think you can’t do that role with any credibility or moral authority”.
Dr Hartley, who was the only bishop to call publicly for Mr Welby’s resignation following the Makin Review into the handling of allegations against serial abuser John Smyth, said she feels “very much like I am a lone voice”.
She added there is “still a strong element” of a boys’ club within the Church of England bishops and that her most recent experience in the House of Lords when gathered with the other senior bishops, is that “they either don’t say anything or look the other way”.
Mr Welby announced last month he would resign, after initially declining to do so, in the wake of the Makin report, which concluded Smyth – the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church – might have been brought to justice had Mr Welby formally reported him to police in 2013.
Following confirmation earlier this month that Mr Welby will not deliver the usual Christmas Day sermon from Canterbury Cathedral, it had been expected Mr Cottrell’s sermon would instead be the focus on December 25.
