The Church of England’s second most senior cleric has been cleared of misconduct over his handling of a priest who committed sexual abuse.
Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, was criticised after he allowed the disgraced priest David Tudor to remain in ministry during his oversight from 2010, despite Tudor’s history of sexual abuse.
Tudor was barred from ministry for life in 2024 after acknowledging he had sexual relationships with two teenage girls, aged 15 and 16, in the 1980s.
He had previously been suspended from ministry for five years in 1988 after admitting to having sex with a 16-year-old girl who was a pupil at a school where he was chaplain. He returned to working in the church in 1994.
A BBC investigation found Cottrell, while bishop of Chelmsford, renewed Tudor’s contract as area dean in Essex on two occasions and was aware of Tudor’s past abuse, the fact he was banned from being alone with children and had paid £10,000 compensation to a sexual abuse victim.
In findings published on Thursday, the church-appointed president of tribunals, Stephen Males, concluded that some mistakes were made in the handling of Tudor’s case, but the threshold for misconduct was not met.
Males, a former court of appeal and high court judge, said Cottrell had no power to remove Tudor from ministry and could not be held responsible for the previous decision to allow Tudor back into ministry.
“They were mistaken and regrettable appointments […] He should have appreciated they would be regarded as deeply painful for victims and survivors of Tudor,” Males said.
However, “in the very difficult circumstances” Cottrell inherited, Males concluded the appointments were “made in good faith and do not amount to misconduct”.
In response to the findings, Cottrell said: “We all have much to learn from this case. There are some things I wish I had done differently.”
Church documents show that Cottrell was briefed about Tudor in his first few weeks as bishop of Chelmsford in 2010, and worked to “minimise the risk he posed”.
He said he regretted that Tudor’s appointment as area dean was renewed in 2013 and 2018, and he “apologises for the hurt this has caused victims and survivors”.
“We knew he shouldn’t have been allowed back into ministry, but since he had been, and we couldn’t remove him, we were working hard, as is the case with all good safeguarding, to manage and minimise the risk he posed based upon the recommendations of a risk assessment and various safeguarding agreements,” he is quoted as saying in a 2024 statement.
“I reiterate that an independent risk assessment had classified [Tudor] as being ‘low risk’.”
A string of abuse scandals has embroiled the church in recent years, culminating in the resignation of its previous leader, Justin Welby, in 2024.
He was succeeded by Sarah Mullally, the first female archbishop of Canterbury, who has vowed to speak out about misogyny but has also faced a complaint over her handling of a safeguarding issue that was ultimately dismissed.
