Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell regrets not handling the case of abuser priest David Tudor differently, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.
Cottrell, who holds the second-most senior position in the Church of England, was bishop of Chelmsford in Essex during the time that Tudor, who had previously been suspended for having sex with a 16-year-old girl, was acting as an area dean.
Tudor had been suspended from ministry for five years in 1988 after having admitted, according to a tribunal document, to having sex with the girl when she was a pupil at a school where he was chaplain.
He returned to working in the church in 1994 but Anglican authorities barred him from being alone with children. Despite his previous actions, he became an area dean in Essex.
A spokeswoman for the archbishop of York said on Sunday that even though Tudor was already area dean when Cottrell arrived in the diocese in 2010, “as the then-diocesan bishop of Chelmsford he accepts responsibility for David Tudor remaining as area dean.”
She continued: “On reflection, he acknowledges this could have been handled differently, and regrets that it wasn’t, but his focus throughout his time as bishop of Chelmsford was, with the help of safeguarding professionals, to understand, assess and manage the risk of David Tudor.
“No one advised him that David Tudor should not continue as an area dean.”
‘Deeply Sorry’
Cottrell’s and his spokeswoman’s comments follow a recent investigation by the BBC into the disgraced former priest.Last week in response to the BBC report, Cottrell said when he became bishop of Chelmsford and was briefed on the situation involving Tudor, he faced a “horrible and intolerable” situation.
The archbishop of York said he “acted immediately” within his authority with regarding the case, but that it was “not possible” to remove the priest from office until the second allegation was made in 2019.
Cottrell said he was “deeply sorry that we were not able to take action earlier, but that was the situation I inherited.”
“I want victims and survivors to know that everything was done to understand, assess and manage the risk. I also want them to know that I fully welcome the outcome of the tribunal in October 2024,” he said.
Welby Resigns
This latest crisis hitting the Church of England comes in the days before Christmas and following the resignation of the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, over his handling of a separate child abuse scandal.Smyth, the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England, is believed to have subjected as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological, and spiritual abuse between the 1970s until his death in 2018.
The report found that while Welby knew Smyth and had a reason “to be concerned” about him, this was not the same as suspecting he had committed severe abuses. However, he “could and should” have gone to the police when he became aware of the allegations against him in 2013.
The Makin report concluded that Smyth might have been brought to justice before he died had Welby formally reported him to the police.
Initially rejecting the notion that he would resign, Welby announced on Nov. 12 that he would formally step down on Jan. 6, which is an important date in the Christian calendar, Epiphany.
The archbishop of York is expected to take on many of the official duties from Welby in 2025, covering them for a substantial part of the year.
Cottrell is also a member of the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), the church body which will appoint the next archbishop of Canterbury.
The full voting membership of the CNC will be known by spring and the announcement of their decision will be made in the autumn of 2025.
