The Archbishop of York Most Rev Stephen Cottrell has dismissed a safeguarding complaint against the Archbishop of Canterbury-elect Sarah Mullally.
At the same time, the Church of England has reopened an investigation into a priest at the heart of the complaint, despite an earlier statement from Bishop Sarah saying the case had been "fully dealt with".
Archbishop Stephen was tasked in December with deciding whether Bishop Sarah should face disciplinary action over her handling of abuse allegations made by a man known as Survivor N.
It followed a Premier Christian News investigation into the case of N, who claims he was abused by a priest in the Diocese of London. He said the response and lack of investigation into his claims by the Diocese of London and Sarah Mullally, as Bishop of London, caused him to have such a severe mental health breakdown that he made two attempts on his life.
He brought a CDM complaint against the accused priest, but Bishop Mullally was accused of contravening the safeguarding code of practice by sending a confidential email about the allegations directly to the priest concerned, outside of the CDM process.
In 2020, Survivor N brought a complaint under the CDM for her handling of his case, but he and his solicitors heard nothing more until Premier contacted the Diocese of London in December 2025.
It emerged that the complaint hadn’t progressed and was no longer outstanding.
Following the Premier investigation, the Church of England undertook a scrutiny report into Bishop Mullally’s handling of the case, with the Archbishop of York given the final decision.
In his final ruling dismissing the complaint, Most Rev Stephen Cottrell wrote: “After having very carefully reviewed the matter I have determined that no further action will be taken in respect of this complaint.” He added: “Accordingly, I am entirely satisfied that there is no misconduct”.
In a statement to Premier in December, Bishop Sarah said the CDM complaint against the accused priest had been “fully dealt” with.
N disputed this and has now received a letter from the Diocese of London’s Registrar Stuart Jones, informing him that the allegations against the priest would now be looked into.
The Bishop of Fulham has been tasked with handling the complaint which should be dealt with within 28 days.
Both Archbishop Stephen and Bishop Sarah are still subject to separate complaints under the Clergy Discipline Measure.
The two complaints were filed by N in December and are being overseen by the Bishop of Winchester Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen.
N told Premier it was a “blatant conflict of interest that Stephen Cottrell should judge a Clergy Discipline Measure complaint when he himself is the subject of a CDM complaint in the very same matter”.
Bishop Mullally is due to be confirmed as Archbishop of Canterbury later this month.