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The Church of England has dismissed a complaint about the incoming archbishop of Canterbury’s handling of an abuse allegation.
Sarah Mullally is due to take up the post on 28 January, after Justin Welby was forced to resign over the way he dealt with a safeguarding scandal.
Mullally had been accused of mishandling a complaint against a priest in London, where she serves as bishop. But on Thursday the archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, who was asked to review Mullally’s handling of the complaint, said he had decided to take no further action against her.
The complainant, a man known as Survivor N, has a right to ask for the decision to be reviewed.
The decision to appoint Cottrell to assess the complaint prompted criticism within the church because he had faced calls to resign last year over his handling of a separate case.
Survivor N said the abuse started in 2014 and was reported to the diocese of London. Mullally became bishop of London in 2018.
N claimed that after he made a formal complaint in 2019 about the alleged abuse, Mullally breached a church disciplinary code by sending a confidential email about the allegation to the priest concerned.
N told the news site Premier Christian Radio that the diocese of London’s and Mullally’s handling of the complaint had left him feeling suicidal.
The diocese of London said proper processes had been followed and that there was no outstanding complaint against Mullally.
Officials at Lambeth Palace, the official London residence of the archbishop of Canterbury, said a complaint about Mullally’s handling of the allegation was made in 2020 and was not followed up because of “administrative errors and an incorrect assumption about the individual’s wishes”.
On Thursday a statement from Cottrell’s office said: “On 7 January the archbishop of York issued his determination not to take any further action in relation to a CDM [church disciplinary measure] complaint originally filed against Bishop Sarah Mullally in 2020. The complainant can under section 13(3) of the measure request this decision is independently reviewed by the president of tribunals.”
N now has 14 days in which to appeal and ask for a review.
Robert Thompson, an Anglican vicar in the London diocese and a member of the General Synod, has called for a pause to Mullally becoming archbishop. He said it was not credible for Cottrell to adjudicate on the case.
In an email to the Guardian, Thompson said: “The dismissal of this CDM complaint by the archbishop of York may close a case on paper, but it does not close the trust deficit. It will inevitably deepen concern about whether the Church of England’s disciplinary processes are capable of commanding the confidence of survivors or the wider public.
“This decision does not resolve the serious questions that have been raised about safeguarding culture, accountability, and the handling of power at the highest levels of the church. It instead reinforces a longstanding perception that senior leaders are insulated from meaningful scrutiny by processes that are opaque, slow and internally controlled.”
He urged the church to reflect on the frequent criticism by survivors of abuse about the system of CDMs. Thompson said: “Whatever the technical outcome of this complaint, the moral and institutional questions remain unresolved. If the church is serious about rebuilding trust, it must recognise that procedural closure is not the same as accountability, and that safeguarding credibility cannot be restored without genuinely independent oversight and a willingness to hear uncomfortable truths.”
In a statement last year, Mullally said it was clear that a complaint made against her in 2020 “was not properly dealt with”. She said she was “seeking assurance that processes have been strengthened to ensure any complaint that comes into Lambeth Palace is responded to in a timely and satisfactory manner”.
