Pallade Veneta - Anglican Church hit by new abuse row

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, the Anglican Church's second most senior cleric, will take charge for a few months in the New Year following the resignation of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby last month.

Welby stepped down after an independent probe found he "could and should" have formally reported decades of abuse by a Church-linked lawyer to authorities in 2013.

The report found the Church of England -- the mother church of Anglicanism -- covered up the "traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks", which occurred in Britain, Zimbabwe and South Africa over several decades.

Now the Bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, has called for Cottrell to stand down over claims he too mishandled a sexual abuse case during his time as the Bishop of Chelmsford.

Priest David Tudor remained in his post under Cottrell, despite the bishop's knowledge that the Church had banned him from being alone with children and paid compensation to a sexual abuse claimant, the BBC reported.

Cottrell said Monday that he was "deeply sorry that we were not able to take action earlier", but defended his actions.

"I suspended David Tudor from office at the first opportunity, when a new victim came forward to the police in 2019," he said.

It was not legally possible to remove Tudor from office "until such time as fresh complaints were made", he added.

- 'Undermines credibility' -

But Hartley said he could have done more.

"It completely undermines his credibility that this case was not acted on," she told the BBC.

"How can you have the moral and ethical authority to lead an institution with that?"

On becoming Bishop of Chelmsford in 2010, Cottrell was told that Tudor had been a defendant in two criminal trials in 1988, according to the BBC investigation.

He was acquitted in the first trial of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl but admitted having sex with her when she was 16.

Tudor was found guilty of indecently assaulting three girls and jailed for six months in the second case, but had the conviction quashed on technical grounds.

The Church banned Tudor but allowed him to return to ministry after five years.

Despite working under an agreement that prevented him from being alone with children or entering schools in Essex in Chelmsford, he went on to become an area dean in charge of 12 parishes.

"Any action that could have been taken... should have been vastly stronger than simply to try and manage a risk, particularly if the priest in question is already banned from working with children or entering schools," Hartley said.

Tudor was only banned for life from ministry two months ago after a Church disciplinary tribunal found his previous sexual relations with two girls were an "abuse of trust" amounting to "grooming".

According to the BBC, at least seven women say they were abused by Tudor.

P.Colombo--PV