by Ian Paul, Psephizo
David Tudor was ordained in the Church of England, and served in Southwark Diocese in the 1980s, and then in Chelmsford Diocese from 2000, as Rector of Canvey Island. As a BBC report from a year ago notes:
- In 1988, David Tudor was a defendant in two criminal trials
- In the first trial, he was acquitted of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old school girl although he admitted having sex with her when she was 16
- In the second trial, he was convicted of indecently assaulting three girls and was jailed for six months. The conviction was quashed on technical grounds because the judge had misdirected the jury
- In 1989, Tudor was banned for sexual misconduct by a Church tribunal but was allowed to return to ministry after 5 years
- In 2005, Tudor was suspended as police investigated an allegation he had indecently assaulted a child in the 1970s. He was not charged and was allowed back to work under conditions
- From January 2008, Tudor had been working under a safeguarding agreement preventing him from being alone with children or entering schools in Essex—and yet months later he had become an area dean in charge of 12 parishes.
All this was known by Stephen Cottrell when he was appointed bishop of Chelmsford in 2010. In 2012, Cottrell was told about the £10,000 payout Tudor had made to Jessica, who says she was sexually abused by him, sometimes very violently, from the age of 11 during the 1970s when Tudor was training to be a minister. Cottrell nevertheless reappointed Tudor, not once but twice, as Area Dean, and also (as part of a new diocesan policy Cottrell introduce) made him an Honorary Canon of Chelmsford Cathedral.
In 2019, fresh allegations were made, and Tudor was suspended from ministry. There was a long delay in bringing a formal tribunal against Tudor, I think because the police were slow to review the case and decide that they would not prosecute, but finally a Church disciplinary tribunal found Tudor guilty of gross misconduct and banned him for life.
Immediately after that tribunal judgement, a complaint under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) was brought against Stephen Cottrell for his handling of the case. The complainant has been granted anonymity; it might have been by one of the people who brought the fresh allegations on which Tudor was convicted. CDM complaints normally have to be made within one year of the alleged offence, but in this case permission was given to consider it ‘out of time’. To ascertain whether it should now be passed into the regular CDM process, a judgement must be made by the President of CDM Tribunals, Sir Stephen Males. He made a ruling in December, and it was published in the middle of January.
I am surprised that it has not made more headlines—because the content of the ruling is quite extraordinary, and you can read it here for yourself. Please take a few minutes to do so.