Archbishop of York 'deeply sorry' for not being able to act sooner over sex abuse case
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Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell has said he is "deeply sorry that we were not able to take action earlier" over a sex abuse case. Mr Cottrell is due to temporarily take over from the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby who will step down on 6 January over failures in handling a separate sex abuse case in the church.
However, his position has been called into question after a BBC investigation and he is facing calls to resign. The investigation claimed that, when Mr Cottrell was Bishop of Chelmsford, he let priest David Tudor stay in post in the diocese despite knowing he had been banned by the Church from being alone with children and paid compensation to a sexual abuse victim.
In a statement on Monday, Mr Cottrell said he "acted immediately" within the authority he had regarding the case. Mr Cottrell said he faced a "horrible and intolerable" situation when he became Bishop of Chelmsford, having been briefed on the situation.
He said: "This morning's news coverage incorrectly implies that no action was taken until 2024. That is not the case. "In my capacity as Bishop of Chelmsford, I suspended David Tudor from office at the first opportunity, when a new victim came forward to the police in 2019.
"Up until 2019, there were no legal grounds to take alternative action. "When I joined the Chelmsford diocese in 2010, I worked closely with its very professional safeguarding team to ensure the risk was managed. "But it was not possible to remove David Tudor from office until such time as fresh complaints were made, which happened when a victim bravely spoke to the police.
