I acted as soon as legally possible over abusive priest, says archbishop

The archbishop of York has said he acted as soon as legally possible after facing calls to resign over his handling of the case against a priest accused repeatedly of sexual misconduct.

- Harriet Sherwood

Stephen Cottrell is due to take over temporary leadership of the Church of England when the resignation of the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, over his failures to deal properly with abuse takes effect.

Cottrell said yesterday he had no legal grounds to take action against David Tudor until 2019, when fresh allegations were made.

His statement followed a BBC investigation that claimed that when Cottrell was bishop of Chelmsford he allowed Tudor to remain in post despite knowing that the church had banned him from being alone with children and had paid £10,000 compensation to a sexual abuse victim.

The woman who received the compensation told the BBC she felt like Cottrell had "spat in my face" by failing to take action when he was told about the payment.

The Rt Rev Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, said Cottrell should stand down. "One archbishop has resigned over a safeguarding failure, and now the remaining archbishop has a very serious matter that calls into question his ability to lead on the urgent change that is required," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"My personal view is that the evidence before us makes it impossible for Stephen Cottrell to be the person in which we have confidence and trust to drive the change that is needed."