Peter Lazenby
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THE Church of England’s sex abuse scandal reignited today with growing calls for the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell’s resignation over his failure to take action against a child-abusing priest.
The archbishop is due to temporarily take over the work of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby on January 6, who resigned over his own failure to act over the separate case of prolific serial abuser John Smyth.
The resignation calls came after a BBC investigation reported that Mr Cottrell, while bishop of Chelmsford, had let priest David Tudor stay in post in the diocese despite knowing he had been barred by the church from being alone with children and had paid compensation to a sexual abuse victim.
The victim who was paid compensation said that Mr Cottrell’s failure to act when he was told about the payment means he should leave the church.”
Mr Tudor was banned from ministry for life in October this year 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.
The Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley said he should neither remain archbishop of York nor lead the Church of England.
She said: “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.”
Ms Hartley said that there is “still a strong element” of a boys’ club among Church of England bishops and that her most recent experience in the House of Lords, when gathered with other senior bishops, is that “they either don’t say anything or look the other way.”
The Church of England said the BBC programme 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. This should never have happened.”
Mr Cottrell said: “I am deeply sorry that we were not able to take action earlier, but that was the situation I inherited.”
But appearing to reject calls to resign over the case, Mr Cottrell pledged to “do what I can” to bring about independent scrutiny of safeguarding in the church.
