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Senior Church of England bishop accused of groping and sexually harassing women

John Perumbalath was accused of sexual assault and harassment before being enthroned as Bishop of Liverpool in 2023 (Picture: Adam Vaughan/EPA-EFE/Rex/Shutterstock)

A Church of England bishop responsible for overseeing discipline has been accused of sexually assaulting and sexually harassing two women.

John Perumbalath, the Bishop of Liverpool, allegedly sexually assaulted a woman on several occasions between 2019 and 2023 while he was a bishop in Essex, Channel 4 News reports.

Interim head of the church, Stephen Cottrell has been accused of a ‘cover up’ after it he was aware of the allegations before Perumbalath was enthroned as Bishop of Liverpool.

‘[Perumbalath] held me there and kissed me forcefully on my mouth, which I did not like and I did not want’, she said of the first alleged instance at an away day in March 2019.

‘I tried to move away, but he was holding my head too tightly. I could feel his mouth pressing on my mouth. I could feel some of his saliva, and the texture of his beard around my mouth.’

On another occasion, in May 2022, she claimed Perumbalath ‘ran his hands past the side of [her] breasts… until he reached the edge of the areola’ after they hugged at the end of a meeting.

Describing another alleged encounter at a chapel music evening in January 2023, she said: ‘He pressed his face against my face, said “I love you” quietly in my ear, and moved his mouth to just below my ear, on the pulse point on my neck.

‘He opened his mouth, took a piece of my skin between his lips, and let go.’

John Perumbalath served as Bishop of Bradwell, in Essex, from 2018 to 2023 (Picture: Facebook)

Perumbalath denies the allegations, saying: ‘The allegations set out in this programme are in relation to encounters that took place in public settings, with other people present.

‘I have consistently denied the allegations made against me by both complainants. I have complied with any investigation from the National Safeguarding Team. The allegations raised in Essex were also investigated by the Police who took no further action.

‘Whilst I don’t believe I have done anything wrong, I have taken seriously the lessons learnt through this process addressing how my actions can be perceived by others. I will comply with any investigation deemed necessary.

‘I take safeguarding very seriously and work hard to provide proper leadership in this area.’

The woman, who has not been named, reported Perumbalath, the Bishop of Bradwell, to police who interviewed him voluntarily under caution last March.

Police closed the investigation with no charges being brought due to insufficient evidence.

In early 2023, his accuser also reported Perumbalath to the Archdeach and other Church leaders, including its current interim head Stephen Cottrell, who served with Perumbalath in the diocese of Chelmsford.

By then, Perumbalath had already been announced as the new Bishop of Liverpool, but he was yet to be formally enthroned.

Interim head of the Church, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell has already faced calls to resign over his handling of a sexual abuse case soon after Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned over similar concerns (Picture: Justin Tallis via Reuters)

Cottrell said safeguarding guidelines were followed and no ongoing safeguarding concerns were identified, ‘but a learning outcome was identified with which the bishop fully engaged’.

A statement on behalf of him and the Church said: ‘The NST concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to bring a safeguarding-related complaint under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) itself but offered the woman support if she wished to do so.

‘The NST continues to have contact, at her request, with the woman who came forward and the offer of ongoing support remains.’

Another woman – one of the 31 women serving as Church of England bishops – has also accused Perumbalath of sexually harassing her.

She also made a formal complaint, which a judge refused to allow because more than a year had passed since the alleged harassment.

Cottrell has already faced calls to resign last year over his handling of a sexual abuse case when he was the Bishop of Chelmsford.

He had reportedly allowed a priest to keep his job despite knowing the Church had barred him from being alone with children and the priest had paid compensation to a sexual abuse victim, the BBC reported.

Cottrell’s term as Bishop of Chelmsford, 2010 to 2020, overlapped with the start of Perumablath’s term as the more junior Bishop of Bradwell (Picture: Danny Lawson/PA)

The revelation came as he replaced his predecessor as church leader, Justin Welby, who resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury after concerns about his own handling of abuse.

Welby had failed to ensure a proper investigation was carried out into the ‘abhorrent’ abuse of more than 130 boys and young men starting in the 1970s by John Smyth QC.

The involvement of Cottrell in the Perumbalath allegations is a concern for Reverend Robert Thompson, who sits on the highest governing body of the Church of England, the General Synod.

He told Channel 4 News: ‘The fact that it is Stephen Cottrell really raises lots more issues about his own conduct.

‘There must be due process which is followed and that has not been followed. But if Stephen Cottrell becomes the second Archbishop in history to quit, some of his colleagues worry the church couldn’t survive.

‘It could well be another instance of a church cover up. I think one of the difficulties at the heart of the top of our church is that there is a protectionist culture between bishops in relation to bishops behavior. And lots of us know that happens all the time.’

‘Either it seems that a complaint has been made to another bishop in which that bishop has not actually actioned the appropriate safeguarding measures, which would have been to step the bishop off from public administration until the proper investigation.’

Andrew Graystone, who advocates for victims of church abuse, and who heard the allegations from the two women involved, also believes Perumbalath should have been stepped down from his responsibilities while an investigation took place.

Perumbalath is one of two Bishops sitting on a commission overseeing clergy discipline.

Graystone said: ‘In most areas of life, if you were a headteacher of a secondary school or a consultant in a hospital, there is no doubt that the person against whom these allegations have been made would be stood down in a neutral way whilst they were investigated and dealt with.

‘The Church may say that they have investigated these allegations. They think it’s all fine, but at no point in that process did they choose to step Bishop Perumbalath back from his responsibilities. On the contrary, they promoted him.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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