Church of England 'regret' over suicide of falsely accused priest

The Church of England has expressed "deep regret and sorrow" over a mishandled inquiry into a priest who killed himself after false child abuse allegations.

Father Alan Griffin, 78, who died last November, spent a year under scrutiny without ever hearing the claims.

A coroner previously said the claims were "supported by no complainant, no witness and no accuser".

"We take responsibility for what went wrong," the Church said.

"We acknowledge that there were either poor processes or systems, or mistakes, that led to unreasonable pressures on Fr Alan," the Diocese of London and Lambeth Palace said in a submission to the coroner.

It added a new head of safeguarding "with 30 years policing experience" had been installed at the start of the month.

Last month, Coroner Mary Hassell's Prevention of Future Deaths report was published following the inquest into Fr Griffin's death at his home in Wapping, east London, on 8 November 2020.

Recording the death as a suicide, the coroner said: "He was an HIV positive (viral load undetectable) gay priest.

"He killed himself because he could not cope with an investigation into his conduct, the detail of and the source for which he had never been told.

"Fr Griffin did not abuse children. He did not have sex with young people under the age of 18. He did not visit prostitutes. He did not endanger the lives of others by having sex with people whilst an HIV risk."

The investigation into Fr Griffin began because an official in the Anglican Diocese of London suggested to his archdeacon that he undertake a "brain dump" of information he had acquired before his retirement.

"We accept that the concerns raised in respect of Fr Griffin were unsubstantiated," the church said in its submission to the coroner.

"We accept that good practice around evidence gathering, verification, and evaluation of information prior to action was lacking.

"We fully accept that there was no subsequent verification of the information shared by/with the head of operations."

The coroner addressed many concerns in her report, which she sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury, pointing out the "breadth of the systemic and individual failings that have come to light during the course of this inquest".

The Church apologised to the coroner for the delay in responding to the inquest process and "for the points at which we did not engage as effectively as we could have done".

"It is a matter of significant regret that, even following the death of Father Griffin, there were a number of lost opportunities to review learning from the handling of this case prior to the inquest," it added.