The alleged second victim, a Church of England clergy member whom The Telegraph is referring to as Survivor O, claims that the priest confronted them, while fully naked, and sexually propositioned them.
The revelations threaten to pile more pressure on Rt Rev Dame Sarah Mullally, who is to be appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury next week, after she was accused of mishandling a separate complaint against the same priest.
In the first case, an alleged victim, known as Survivor N, claims to have been groped and asked to perform a sex act by the priest.
The priest also allegedly invited Survivor N to his flat and proceeded to change clothes, which involved stripping down to his underpants, before talking about his sex life. He allegedly suggested there was a “sexual attraction” between himself and his guest.
Survivor N complained to the diocese of London, headed up by Dame Sarah, as the Bishop of London.
He claims she then failed him by claiming that his complaint against the priest was “fully dealt with”, and also by previously sending a confidential email about the allegations directly to the priest accused of the sexual assault.
The Telegraph has also seen correspondence in which Dame Sarah wrote to the priest saying that Survivor N’s claims were “unsubstantiated”.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, Survivor O said that they had a similar experience with the same priest.
Survivor O said: “The allegations that Survivor N is making come as no surprise to me. I can only speak for my own experience, but I have personal grounds to take these allegations seriously.
“A number of years ago, I visited the priest at the centre of the allegations made more recently in 2020. He made an unwanted sexual proposition towards me.
“I didn’t make a formal complaint at the time because I felt intimidated by our age difference and I was unsure that I would be listened to.
“I believe organisations need to treat patterns of behaviour like this with real seriousness and create environments where people can report safely.”
‘Revisited’
Although Dame Sarah had no involvement in Survivor O’s case and no complaint was ever made, the latest allegation will put renewed pressure on her ahead of her installation as Archbishop of Canterbury at St Paul’s Cathedral on Wednesday next week.
Her predecessor, Justin Welby, was forced to resign in a separate scandal over his mishandling of abuse claims.
Survivor O’s claims also raise fresh questions as to why the outcome of Survivor N’s complaint was, as he claims, never fully resolved and why the Diocese of London recently announced that it was being “revisited”.
Last month, Dame Sarah released a statement that church authorities had “fully dealt with” a formal complaint accusing the priest of sexual assault after it was made by Survivor N in 2020.
However, Survivor N claimed that he had never heard anything regarding the outcome of his complaint.
Documents seen by The Telegraph show that the Church’s own officials are currently looking into the case, which, Survivor N suggests, shows that six years after he made his complaint, it is neither resolved nor “fully dealt with” as Dame Sarah claimed.
As a result, Survivor N filed an official complaint, known as a Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM), against Dame Sarah after she said last month that his complaint against the priest had been “fully dealt with”.
The CDM remains outstanding and is being looked at by the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen.
Furthermore, earlier this month, a previous CDM made by Survivor N against Dame Sarah over her handling of his complaint against the priest was dismissed by her closest ranking colleague, the Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell.
Survivor N has indicated that he will be appealing Archbishop Stephen’s dismissal of this CDM. This would mean that there would be two live CDM’s against Dame Sarah.
Responding to the claims about Survivor O, Andrew Graystone, an advocate for victims of church-related abuse, said: “I know from experience that many people who have suffered abuse in the Church don’t feel it is safe for them to report it.
“There is a cost to reporting your abuse, and when so many victims are not listened to properly or treated fairly, others are disinclined to speak up. The Church of England is not going to be a safe place until that culture is changed.”
A Diocese of London spokesman has alerted the Diocesan safeguarding team to the case of Survivor O.
The Diocese has said in previous statements that Survivor N’s allegations against a priest were originally received and investigated in 2014 and 2015, and no safeguarding concerns were found.
The spokesman added that a restraining order had later been sought by the Metropolitan Police in relation to Survivor N’s contact with the priest concerned, was issued in 2017 and remains in place.
The Diocese added that the 2020 complaint against the priest had been “revisited” following Survivor N’s public statements and was now being “considered and determined” by the Rt Rev Jonathan Baker, the Bishop of Fulham.