CREEPY Priest Thought as Risk to Children Kicked Out by Church of England

[Ladybbird]

CREEPY Priest Thought to Pose Risk to Children is Paid Off

Documents seen by the BBC show there had been concerns about Canon Hindley for years

BBC 13 AUG 2024







The Church of England made a six-figure pay-off to a priest assessed as a potential risk to children and young people, a BBC investigation has found.


A senior member of staff at Blackburn Cathedral resigned over the settlement and says concerns about the priest were “an open secret” among senior clergy.

Canon Andrew Hindley - who worked in Blackburn diocese from 1991 to 2021 - was subject to five police investigations, including into allegations of sexual assault.

He has never been charged with any criminal offences and says he has never presented any safeguarding risk to anyone.

The archbishops of Canterbury and York have told the BBC they are “still working” to get Church processes right and “must learn” from past mistakes.

The former Bishop of Blackburn Julian Henderson described the financial settlement when he was in post as the “only option” left for the Church “to protect children and vulnerable young people from the risk Canon Hindley posed”.

Despite many people we approached being unwilling to talk, our two-year investigation also found:

Restrictions on Canon Hindley, banning him from choir school and school visits, were never monitored

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, backed a plan to close Blackburn Cathedral if the priest returned to work from suspension

Three Lancashire bishops complained “strings have been pulled and networks have been used to effect Canon Hindley’s ongoing ministry”

There were previous attempts to pay the priest to leave, dating back more than 15 years




The Pay-Off

In 2022, Canon Hindley was offered £240,000, the BBC understands. We do not know the final amount paid because the parties signed non-disclosure agreements keeping it secret.

The Church of England said it was settling legal action brought by the priest in response to an earlier Church decision to force him to retire.

But the BBC has seen evidence the Church tried several times over the years to pay off Canon Hindley.







Rowena Pailing


It was the “tipping point” for Rowena Pailing, who quit as the cathedral’s vice-dean and head of safeguarding, ending a nearly 20-year career with the Church of England.




“I couldn't work for an organisation which put its own reputation and the protection of alleged abusers above the protection and care and listening to victims and survivors,” she tells the BBC, speaking publicly for the first time about the case.

The message the payment sends to victims and survivors is “absolutely horrific… I was devastated”.

Mrs Pailing says that when she was offered the job in 2018 she was warned of “serious safeguarding concerns and allegations” over a priest, spanning “a long period of about 25 years”.

She says she was assured there was a plan to deal with it. But after taking up the post “it became quite clear there was no plan” and quickly realised the Church of England was sitting on an open secret.

Recalling an event at Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, she says: “There was a bishop from another diocese who referred to the particular canon by name and asked if he was still up to his old tricks.”

Internal Church of England documents, seen by the BBC, show there had been concerns about Blackburn Cathedral for years.

A 2009 cathedral inspection concluded Canon Hindley “may pose a threat to young men” and to the cathedral’s name.