The Bishop of Fulham has decided to proceed with an investigation into a priest at the heart of a safeguarding complaint by a man known as Survivor N - despite a church lawyer's recommendation.
Rt Rev Jonathan Baker was tasked with making the final decision into a CDM (Clergy Discipline Measure) complaint brought against a priest in the Diocese of London. The Church of England announced in January that the complaint, which had first been brought in 2020, would be reopened, despite the incoming Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally saying it had been “fully dealt with”. It followed a Premier Christian News investigation into the case.
Bishop Jonathan’s decision to proceed has overridden a recommendation from the Diocesan Registrar Stuart Jones to dismiss the case. Stuart Jones was also the Diocesan Registrar tasked with handling N’s original complaint in 2020. N heard nothing about the outcome to this complaint until five years later, when informed by Premier.
N told Premier that it felt like a “sick joke” and a “stitch up” that the same person who threw out his original complaint against an alleged priest had been told to investigate the reopened case:
“After 5 years of burying my CDM complaint, Sarah Mullally has given oversight of it to one of her own suffragan bishops, while the Diocesan Registrar, the lawyer handling my complaint, is the exact same man who buried my complaint all these years”, he added “The latest episode of the Mullally-gate scandal feels like a sick joke, yet another stitch-up".
Michelle Burns, former safeguarding professional in the Diocese of London and author of the blog Guarding the Flock told Premier:
“Keeping this case in-house is indefensible. The same lawyer advised on the original complaint and is now involved again, having moved to another firm. While ecclesiastical law is a small and specialist field, this does not excuse a conflict of interest that destroys any claim to independence and exposes the Diocese of London’s contempt for the victim’s wishes and feelings.”
The Bishop of Fulham will now write to the priest concerned for a formal reply.
A spokesperson for the Diocese of London told Premier: “The Diocese of London is following the CDM process as laid out in the President of Tribunals’ directions, issued in January 2026.”