Anglican Church hit by new abuse row

LONDON: A senior UK bishop, who will soon take over temporarily as leader of the world´s Anglicans after a sex abuse scandal, faced calls to quit on Monday over his own handling of another case.

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, the Anglican Church´s second most senior cleric, will take charge for a few months in the New Year following the resignation of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby last month.

Welby stepped down after an independent probe found he “could and should” have formally reported decades of abuse by a Church-linked lawyer to authorities in 2013. The report found the Church of England -- the mother church of Anglicanism -- covered up the “traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks”, which occurred in Britain, Zimbabwe and South Africa over several decades.

Now the Bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, has called for Cottrell to stand down over claims he too mishandled a sexual abuse case during his time as the Bishop of Chelmsford. Priest David Tudor remained in his post under Cottrell, despite the bishop´s knowledge that the Church had banned him from being alone with children and paid compensation to a sexual abuse claimant, the BBC reported. Cottrell said Monday that he was “deeply sorry that we were not able to take action earlier”, but defended his actions.