THE FUSE

A victim of sexual abuse by a Church of England priest has said she is "disgusted and appalled" by a decision not to hold a disciplinary hearing into the Archbishop of York's handling of her abuser.

In 2024, a BBC investigation revealed that as the Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell had allowed David Tudor to remain in post as a vicar under him for nine years, despite knowing about his history of sexual misconduct.

On Thursday, the president of tribunals, a Church-appointed lawyer who rules on internal disciplinary matters, decided that Cottrell "had no power to remove or suspend David Tudor from ministry".

One of Tudor's victims says the decision "sends a deeply troubling message about accountability" at the top of the Church.

Allegations against David Tudor stretched across numerous decades from the 1980s onwards.

In 1988, Tudor was convicted of indecently assaulting three girls when he was a vicar and school chaplain in Surrey and was jailed for six months, but after serving his sentence had his conviction quashed on technical grounds.

Tudor had earlier been acquitted of indecently assaulting another 15-year-old school girl, although he had admitted to having sex with her when she was 16.

The new statement from the Church president of tribunals says David Tudor "had a sexual interest in teenage girls and was prepared to exploit his position to groom them, in gross breach of trust, with a view to a sexual relationship."

"As a charismatic young vicar, he was well placed to abuse teenage girls in this way," the judgement says.

In 1989, Tudor was banned for sexual misconduct by a Church tribunal, but five years later was allowed to return to ministry.

He eventually went on to become an area dean in charge of 12 parishes in Canvey Island in Essex.

In 2010, Cottrell was appointed Bishop of Chelmsford, and David Tudor's boss, and acknowledged that during his first week in office he was briefed on longstanding safeguarding concerns about the priest.

By that stage Tudor had been barred by the Church from being alone with children and was not allowed to enter schools in Essex.

By 2012, Cottrell also knew that Tudor had paid a £10,000 settlement to a woman who says she was sexually abused by him from the age of 11. But in 2015 Cottrell made Tudor Honorary Canon of Chelmsford Cathedral.

In 2024, Mr Cottrell said he had been faced with a "horrible and intolerable situation" regarding David Tudor, that he "lived with every day".

But subsequent reporting by the BBC revealed that Mr Cottrell had publicly referred to Tudor, who is now banned from ministry for life, as a 'Rolls Royce' priest.

Safeguarding advocates and another senior member of clergy, like the Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley, said they felt Cottrell could have acted earlier and could have removed the priest.

In his ruling on Thursday, the president of tribunals said Cottrell did not have the power to remove the priest, but viewed the renewal of Tudor's contract as area dean in both 2013 and 2018 as the most serious allegation against him.

He reports that Cottrell had "explained that in 2018 he was reluctant to re-appoint David Tudor but was told that there was nobody suitable to replace him as area dean." Tudor was then given an additional two-year contract.

The president of tribunals also says that Cottrell "now accepts that this was a mistake, which did not take account of the pain which this would cause to Tudor's victims and that these appointments should not have been made".

The ruling suggests he agreed with Cottrell's assessment but that the president of tribunals says that "the risk presented by David Tudor was being regularly monitored." He did not feel the matter needed further investigation.

Debbie, not her real name, says that between the ages of 13 and 15 she was sexually abused by Tudor. Reacting to Thursday's ruling, Debbie told the BBC the decision not to hold Cottrell to account for his actions is "appalling".

"When senior leaders fail to act on serious safeguarding warnings and allow known risks to continue unchecked, they should be held responsible - not quietly absolved. This decision reinforces the sense that the Church of England protects its hierarchy far more rigorously than it protects vulnerable people."

"Turning a blind eye, failing to act decisively, and allowing someone who posed a risk to continue in ministry is not acceptable in any organisation — least of all the Church."

David Tudor was only suspended in 2019 when a police investigation was launched after another woman came forward alleging he had abused her in the 1980s.

Tudor was banned from the Church of England in October 2024 after he admitted historical sex abuse allegations relating to two girls.

Last November a Church tribunal upheld a new complaint that Tudor sexually abused a 15-year-old girl in the 1980s.

The ruling from the Church's president of tribunals reports that Stephen Cottrell was "glad to have the opportunity to respond to these very legitimate concerns and questions."

"It gives me an opportunity to apologise for oversights and mistakes that were made"

But the ruling also shows for the first time the involvement of Dame Sarah Mullally, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, in decision-making on the Tudor case.

Last year, when she was Bishop of London, she was asked to decide if the complaint against Cottrell should be put before a disciplinary tribunal.

Following advice from her legal officer she requested a formal written answer from Stephen Cottrell in relation to his re-appointment of David Tudor as area dean but otherwise dismissed the complaint against him.

That was challenged by the woman who brought the complaint against Cottrell which is why it was looked at by the Church's president of tribunals.

He has ruled that Dame Sarah's decision was "plainly wrong" and that "the complaint needed to be properly investigated and should not have been dismissed as lacking sufficient substance."

Advocates for victims and survivors of church abuse have long complained about bishops making rulings about each other in relation to safeguarding cases.

Earlier this month, in a separate case, Stephen Cottrell made a decision that Dame Sarah Mullally had no case to answer in relation to a complaint about her handling of a complaint of abuse by a priest in the London Diocese.