A PRIEST accused of child sexual abuse, who had paid a settlement to one of his alleged victims, was reappointed twice as an area dean in the diocese of Chelmsford, the BBC reported on Sunday, leading to renewed pressure on the Archbishop of York, who was the diocesan Bishop at the time.
On Monday of last week, a BBC investigation was published about actions taken against David Tudor, a priest accused of child sexual abuse, who was Team Rector of Canvey Island, in Chelmsford diocese, when Archbishop Cottrell was the diocesan bishop (News, 16 December).
In his response to the initial investigation, Archbishop Cottrell said that until new allegations about non-recent abuse were made in 2019, “there were no legal grounds to take alternative action,” but in 2019 he “acted immediately” to suspend Mr Tudor.
A police investigation did not lead to any charges (News, 19 August 2022), but Mr Tudor was subsequently prohibited from ministry for life under the Clergy Discipline Measure (News, 15 November).
Mr Tudor was appointed as Area (Rural) Dean of Hadleigh before Archbishop Cottrell became the Bishop of Chelmsford in 2010, but on Sunday the BBC reported that Mr Tudor’s position had been renewed twice during his tenure.
A spokesperson for Archbishop Cottrell said on Sunday that he “accepts responsibility” for Mr Tudor’s remaining an area dean despite concerns about him.
“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. As we stated in our earlier submission, all the risks around David Tudor were regularly reviewed by safeguarding professionals and this was the main focus. When further action could be taken in 2019, it was,” the spokesperson said.
The new information prompted renewed calls for Archbishop Cottrell to resign, with one survivor of abuse telling the BBC that “these are not the actions of a bishop dealing with a situation that was intolerable to him, in fact, quite the opposite. I call on him to do the honourable thing for the sake of the Church and resign.”
The Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, commented on the new reports in a post on X: “I don’t know how you can find a situation ‘horrible and intolerable’ and then square that with what is reported . . . Answer is, you can’t and be expected to be a credible voice as the leadership of the Church of England.”
As was the case in the lead-up to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s resignation in November, Dr Hartley has been the only bishop to call publicly for a resignation.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday whether he thought Archbishop Cottrell should resign, the Bishop of Lichfield, Dr Michael Ipgrave, said that it was a decision for the Archbishop, but that “safeguarding is much, much too serious a matter for all the attention to be focused on that kind of question.”
He said: “I know that Archbishop Stephen is a conscientious, honourable and prayerful man, and he will have been thinking deeply about what is best course of action is.”
Also on Sunday, on BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend, the Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, said that there “very important conversations and processes” that needed to take place, but that they “weren’t going to take place over public media”.
She said that there were “big questions” to be looked at with regard to Mr Tudor’s reappointment, news of which had filled her with “shock and dismay”, but she refused to be drawn on Archbishop Cottrell’s position.
In the late 1980s, Mr Tudor was barred for ministry for five years for sexual misconduct, but returned to ministry in the diocese of Southwark in 1993. He subsequently moved to the diocese of Chelmsford, where he continued to minister — though from 2008 he was subject to safeguarding restrictions that prevented his being alone with a child and entering schools in Essex.
Last week, questions were asked about why Mr Tudor was allowed to remain as Area Dean, and be appointed an honorary canon as a result (News, 17 December).
On Sunday, the BBC reported that, in October 2018, a “core group” safeguarding meeting at Church House discussed Mr Tudor’s position, and a bishop from another diocese said that Mr Tudor’s honorary canonry and area deanery could be removed “straight away” if the diocese wanted.
At a follow-up meeting in November 2018, however, the diocese said that this would not be appropriate because of “the difficulty of removing those titles without explaining why”, according to the BBC’s reporting.
Concerns about the legality of taking action against Mr Tudor without fresh allegations should not have been heeded, Dr Hartley said last week, in response to the initial investigation.
She suggested that, were she in Archbishop Cottrell’s shoes, she would have found a way to remove Mr Tudor.