Former Church of England vicar, David Tudor has received a second lifetime ban from ministry after a tribunal found he had “more likely than not” had sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old-girl in Surrey in the 1980s.
The ban follows a Bishop’s Disciplinary Tribunal for the Diocese of Southwark which sat in November 2025. It upheld a new complaint against Tudor under the Clergy Discipline Measure(CDM) and has just published its findings.
Tudor had already been prohibited from ministry for life in October 2024 following his full admission of guilt to disclosures of serious sexual abuse from two complainants, aged 15 and 16, relating to the time when he was a priest in the Diocese of Southwark. These offences took place between 1982 and 1989.
In the latest ruling, the tribunal heard that the victim, known as Z had attended a school in Redhill where Tudor was chaplain and an RE teacher. She also went to his church and youth club and said she had been looking for guidance and a father figure to whom she could confide. However, Tudor who was 29 at the time groomed and sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions over a six month period, starting when she was 15 in 1984.
Z told the tribunal that after the abuse she had taken an overdose a few days later “because she felt she had let God down and would not be able to go to Church anymore”.
Tudor was charged and admitted having sex with Z when she was 16, but denied it had happened any earlier and was acquitted. He was suspended by the Bishop of Southwark in 1989 after a separate finding of misconduct.
However in 1997, Tudor went on to work as a priest in the Diocese of Chelmsford where he remained until he was suspended from ministry in 2019. The then Bishop of Chelmsford Stephen Cottrell who is now the Archbishop of York, has been heavily criticised for allowing Tudor to remain in ministry despite knowing about his history of sexual misconduct. It has been reported that he even described him as a “Rolls Royce priest” at a service in 2018, although the archbishop doesn’t recall making this statement. A complaint under the Clergy Discipline Measure looking into Archbishop Cottrell’s handling of the case ruled in December 2025 that “there is no reliable evidence of what, if anything, [Archbishop Cottrell] actually said, let alone of any context in which he may have said anything to this effect.”
The President of CDM Tribunals concluded that “although some mistakes were made in the handling of David Tudor’s case” there was no case to answer and no possibility that a tribunal could find that Archbishop Stephen had committed misconduct.
Z told November’s tribunal that it had “come as a shock to find out in June 2023 that he had been exercising a ministry in Canvey Island for many years” and that it made her feel that the Church thought his behaviour in the 1980s was “inconsequential”.
Commenting on Tudor’s second lifetime ban from ministry, Rt Rev Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford said: “The woman who brought this complaint showed extraordinary courage in doing so. I want to repeat my thanks to her and to all those who have come forward to report David Tudor’s abuse. I am profoundly sorry for the trauma and harm he has caused and I am deeply grateful to them for engaging with this lengthy and difficult process.
“I also want to repeat my thanks to the safeguarding professionals at Chelmsford and Southwark Dioceses and the Church of England National Safeguarding Team who continue to work together to support those who are victims and survivors of David Tudor’s abuse and to liaise with the relevant statutory authorities.
“We are continuing to support the Independent Reviewers who are undertaking a Safeguarding Practice Review of the David Tudor case.”
In November it was announced that The David Tudor Safeguarding Practice Review, commissioned by the National Safeguarding Team, NST and the dioceses of Southwark and Chelmsford, has extended beyond the initially planned six-month deadline due to new police information. The Church says support continues to be offered to survivors.