BRADFORD CATHEDRAL confirmed on Wednesday that it had paid compensation to a former staff member “in relation to non-current allegations”.

A report in Private Eye this week says that the payment relates to the late 1980s, and was made to a woman who alleged that the unwelcome attention of the then Provost, the Very Revd Brandon Jackson, caused her to leave the diocese.

The payment was made without any admission of liability. A cathedral spokesperson said: “This is a private matter and it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

A spokesperson for the cathedral’s insurers, Ecclesiastical, said: “Due to the confidential nature of the claims process we do not comment on individual cases or claims.”

Provost Jackson went on to become Dean of Lincoln, where, in 1995, he was acquitted of a charge of conduct unbecoming a clerk in Holy Orders in a consistory-court trial.