A COMPLAINT against the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, was “not taken forward or appropriately followed up”, Lambeth Palace said in a statement on Thursday.
The claim related to the diocese of London’s and Bishop Mullally’s handling of an abuse allegation, Premier Christian News reported on Monday. The complainant, referred to as Survivor N, filed the complaint in March 2020.
The statement from Lambeth Palace said that, “due to administrative errors and an incorrect assumption about the individual’s wishes, the complaint was not taken forward or appropriately followed up.”
Bishop Mullally, who is now the Archbishop-elect of Canterbury (News, 3 October), said in a separate statement that Survivor N had been “let down by the processes of the Church of England.
“While his abuse allegations against a member of clergy were fully dealt with by the Diocese of London, it is clear that a different complaint he subsequently made against me personally in 2020 was not properly dealt with.”
On Wednesday evening, The Times reported that the matter had not been pursued by the provincial registrar because the registrar expected to receive further documents from Survivor N. When these failed to arrive, the registrar assumed that he did not wish to continue with the complaint against Bishop Mullally.
After the publication of Premier’s story on Monday, the error was realised and the complaint against Bishop Mullally is now being considered under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) process.
Under the first steps of the process, a “preliminary scrutiny report” is being completed, which will be sent to the Archbishop of York. He will then decide whether he believes there are grounds to ask Bishop Mullally for a formal response.
Survivor N told Premier that he was subject to a “systematic campaign of harassment and retribution as a CDM complainant”, and made reference to a restraining order that was imposed on him. The Church Times understands that this was imposed by court order, after allegations that he had harassed his alleged abuser.
Survivor N’s mental health deteriorated in the period after submitting complaints against Bishop Mullally, a psychiatrist said in an interview with Premier. Survivor N told the Christian news website that he had twice attempted to take his own life.
In her statement this week, Bishop Mullally said that she was “seeking assurance that processes have been strengthened to ensure any complaint that comes into Lambeth Palace is responded to in a timely and satisfactory manner”.
As Archbishop, she would, she said, “do everything in my power to bring about much needed and overdue reform. We must have trust in our systems, or else we cannot expect others to put their trust in us.”