Seven clergy to face disciplinary action
BBCSeven Church of England clergy face being disciplined after a damning abuse report which prompted Justin Welby's resignation as the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Retired former Bishop of Durham the Right Reverend Paul Butler is among those who could be banned from ministry following a review of evidence in the report into the prolific abuser John Smyth QC.
Smyth, a barrister who died in South Africa in 2018 at the age of 77, attacked more than 100 boys and young men at his Winchester home in the 1970s and 1980s, the Makin Review found.
That report, published last year, concluded the abuse was covered up within the Church for decades.
While the review led to the eventual resignation of Mr Welby, the Church's national safeguarding team (NST) undertook to look at all clergy criticised within the report.
In an update on Thursday, the Church said Bishop Butler and six others would face disciplinary proceedings under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM).
CDM outcomes can range from a conditional discharge where no penalty is imposed, to removal from office, resignation by consent and a lifetime ban from ministry.
While a new process, replacing the CDM, was approved by the Church's parliament earlier this month to include defrocking, it is not thought this will be in place in time for these cases.
Getty ImagesThe former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, will not face any action.
Lord Carey, who was named in the Makin Review, had been one of 10 clergy revealed in February as facing possible action.
But the NST has confirmed 89-year-old Lord Carey, the Reverend Paul Perkin and the Reverend Hugh Palmer will face no further action.
As there is a 12-month time limit on cases being brought, the NST had to ask for permission of the President of the Tribunals to bring a CDM "out of time".
Permission was granted in only seven of the 10 cases and the NST said it "entirely respects" the decision from the "independent judicial process".
Others named as facing CDMs include the Reverend Sue Colman - the wife of the Colman's mustard heir Sir Jamie Colman.
The Makin report concluded Mrs Colman, associate minister at St Leonard's Church in Oakley, near Basingstoke in Hampshire, was aware of Smyth's abuse before being ordained and noted that she and her husband visited Smyth in Africa in the 1990s and funded the Smyths through a personal trust.
About a week after the Makin Review was published, the Diocese of Winchester said Mrs Colman had been asked to "step back from all ministerial duties".
The rest facing possible disciplinary action are the Reverend Roger Combes, the Reverend Andrew Cornes, the Reverend Tim Hastie-Smith, the Reverend Nick Stott and the Reverend John Woolmer.
The NST said it would make no further comment on the cases while CDM proceedings were under way and no timeline had been given for when they might conclude.