A VICAR in the diocese of Chelmsford has been barred from schoolteaching, and has stepped back from ministry, over his failure to report that a convicted sex offender in his congregation was in danger of breaching a safeguarding order.

The Vicar of St Anne’s, Chingford, since 2005, the Revd Jude Bullock, also taught religious studies and psychology at Queenswood, an independent school in Hertfordshire.

The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) this month barred him from the profession, over his decision in 2018 to allow a convicted offender to stay in the parish centre without making either church or local authority safeguarding bodies aware of the man’s change of circumstances.

Police investigated the incident in 2018, but did not proceed with charges against Mr Bullock. Subsequently, a Clergy Disciplinary Measure (CDM) case was successfully brought against him, and he was suspended from ministry for three and a half years.

A spokesperson for the diocese of Chelmsford confirmed that, in light of the TRA’s decision this month, Fr Bullock had agreed to a request from the Bishop of Chelmsford “to step back from ministry with immediate effect so a safeguarding risk assessment can be undertaken”.

The spokesperson confirmed that Fr Bullock had previously been subject to a CDM “in relation to the same conduct”, and was suspended from November 2018 to February 2022.

He “then served a further three months prohibition, taking into account the lengthy period of suspension he had served,” the spokesperson said.

Queenswood, where he taught part-time, told BBC News that “the incident that was investigated did not in any way involve the school, its pupils or any member of its community.” The TRA report notes that his employment at the school ceased in 2020.

The TRA case has taken five years to come to completion. A report sets out the grounds on which he has been permanently banned from teaching, concluding that it “appeared” that Fr Bullock had “put the interests of a convicted sex offender above those of children”.

CONTACTED by the Church Times last Friday, Fr Bullock said that he was “deeply sorry”, and acknowledged that he “fell short of expectations on safeguarding”.

“It was not anything I’d done, but what I didn’t do,” he said. He admitted that his inaction had put people at risk.

Some details of the case are redacted in the TRA report, including the identity of the convicted sex offender and other individuals involved. But it recounts how he started attending the church in 2013, and was recognised by someone in 2015, who contacted the local authority.

A safeguarding agreement was drawn up by the diocese in January 2016, which prohibited the man from contact with children under the age of 16, other than supervised contact with his own children.

He was also prohibited from staying overnight in any premises where he believed that a child under 16 was present.

The Church Times understands that this became an issue when members of the man’s family were made homeless, and came to live with him. Aware of the clause of the safeguarding agreement, which prohibited the man “from residing overnight with [REDACTED], Rev Bullock had offered alternative overnight accommodation arrangements in the parish centre” for the man, the report says.

Fr Bullock did not, at this juncture, inform the diocesan safeguarding team of the man’s change in circumstances, something which he acknowledged was a mistake. In the report, he is described as saying that he “could not really understand” why he had not done this, as there was no benefit to him of not doing so.

Fr Bullock, the report said, thought that the man had been “growing in grace” and that, before this situation developed, the man’s life had been going in a “positive direction”.

The man was arrested when police found him at his home with an unidentified member, or members, of his family, on the grounds that he was breaking the terms of his court-imposed Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

The panel criticised Fr Bullock, saying that he had “independently taken a decision that there was no risk to children in a convicted sex offender having contact with them”.

“The panel found that he deliberately and intentionally disregarded the need to adhere to measures and procedures put in place to safeguard children so putting them at risk,” the report said.

It also found him to have “acted in a seriously dishonest manner and fundamentally undermined the safeguarding of children”, and justified indefinite prohibition from the teaching profession on the basis is that “there remained a very serious risk of repetition”.

Last Friday, Fr Bullock said that he regretted certain comments that he made during the investigation. In the report, he is quoted as saying that his life had been “ruined by the Kafka-esque incompetence and cruelty of the safeguarding industry which is marching full scale ahead into becoming a new Stasi”.

He deeply regretted the comments, which had been made when he “didn’t really understand what was happening”, he said.