by Donna Birrell, Premier
Premier Christian News has learned that the Church of England has dismissed an appeal against the Archbishop of Canterbury’s handling of abuse allegations by a man who says he was abused by a priest in the Diocese of London.
The decision comes despite unresolved complaints filed by the man, known as Survivor N, under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM). Most Rev Sarah Mullally requested that the President of Tribunals, Sir Stephen Males, publish his decision that the complaint against her “ought not to have been brought”.
In a letter to Sir Stephen in February, Archbishop Sarah said that given her office and the level of press coverage surrounding the case, publication would be in the public interest. She also wrote that as the claim had been assessed as “vexatious”, N may wish to “pause and consider whether he wishes to pursue further complaints”.
Sir Stephen made the decision to dismiss the case against Archbishop Sarah despite two dozen witness statements and a multi-signature letter sent to the archbishop when she was Bishop of London from locals in the city about the alleged behaviour of the priest at the centre of the case.
N claimed Sir Stephen had “ignored all this raw primary witness evidence and instead this testimony was heavily filtered through the Diocese of London safeguarding bureaucracy into a secondary internal memo by one of Sarah Mullally’s employees which decided there was no safeguarding risk. In any other legal system this practice of filtering witness evidence, would be ruled an Abuse of Process”.
The Church dismissed the appeal despite an outstanding CDM complaint against the priest, no early safeguarding risk assessment having been carried out, and no investigation into allegations of “behaviour unbecoming a clergyman in Holy Orders”.