Case of abuser priest could have been handled differently – Archbishop of York
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Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell has said things “could have been handled differently” after an investigation reported a priest at the centre of a sexual abuse case was twice reappointed to a senior role while the archbishop was serving as Bishop of Chelmsford.
Mr Cottrell, the Church of England’s second-most senior bishop, has faced calls to resign over his handling of the case of David Tudor, who was banned from ministry for life this year after admitting what the Church of England described as serious sexual abuse involving two girls aged 15 and 16.
Decades earlier, Tudor was suspended from ministry for five years in 1988, having admitted, according to a tribunal document, having sex with a 16-year-old girl he met when she was a pupil at a school where he was chaplain. But he was later able to return to working in the church in 1994.
The archbishop said he “acted immediately” within the authority he had regarding the case, and that it was “not possible” to remove the priest from office until fresh complaints were made against him in 2019. Mr Cottrell said he faced a “horrible and intolerable” situation when he became Bishop of Chelmsford, having been briefed on the situation in 2010.
However, according to a fresh BBC investigation, Tudor’s contract as area dean in Essex was renewed in both 2013 and 2018. A spokesperson for Mr Cottrell told the BBC the archbishop “acknowledges this could have been handled differently”. They also said “all the risks around David Tudor were regularly reviewed” and that was the “main focus”.
