Archbishop of York faces calls to resign over handling of sexual abuse case
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Church of England crisis deepens as second archbishop faces scrutiny over response to abuse. The archbishop of York is under pressure to resign over the way he handled a sexual abuse case amid revelations that compound a major crisis in the Church of England.
Stephen Cottrell is due to take over temporary leadership of the church in three weeks when the resignation of the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, over his failures to deal properly with abuse takes effect. A BBC investigation has claimed that when Cottrell was bishop of Chelmsford he allowed a priest to remain in post despite knowing that the C of E had banned him from being alone with children and that the accused priest had paid £10,000 compensation to a sexual abuse victim.
The woman who received the compensation claimed she had been abused by David Tudor as a child. She felt like Cottrell had “spat in my face” by failing to take action when he was told about the payment, she told the BBC File on 4 Investigates. The Rt Rev Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, said Cottrell should stand down. “One archbishop has resigned over a safeguarding failure, and now the remaining archbishop has a very serious matter that calls into question his ability to lead on the urgent change that is required,” she told the Today programme.
