The nude vicar, his very startled secretary – and a gagging order
A VICAR’S secretary who complained about her boss wandering around in the nude ‘in various states of arousal’ was told to sign a gagging order by the Church of England.
Reverend Tom Walker told his personal assistant Jo Kind that he had a problem with his libido and that he had been given medical advice that he should not wear clothes.
When she complained about his bizarre behaviour 20 years later, she says her worries were simply brushed under the carpet. She was then told to sign a gagging clause when a fresh review was carried out this year.
Non- disclosure agreements have become increasingly controversial since it was revealed that retail tycoon Sir Philip Green used them to try to suppress allegations made about him by his employees.
Mrs Kind said the behaviour of the vicar, who died in 2016, had made her ‘deeply, deeply uncomfortable’ and that her concerns increased when Rev Walker said he had not told his wife about it.
Now a report drawn up by the Church said Mrs Kind’s complaints – first made in 2008 – had not been properly investigated.
However the Church has yet to publish its full findings and Mrs Kind said that when she was shown the report she was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement by Church officials, promising not to divulge its contents.
She told Channel 4 News that Rev Walker insisted on stripping off and wandering round his vicarage ‘in various states of arousal’ when she worked at St John’s Church, Harborne, Birmingham. She said: ‘He told me about the job and what my duties would be, ‘Inappropriate’: Reverend Tom Walker with his secretary Jo Kind then said he had problem with his nodding my acceptance to. libido and in order to rectify that ‘I became really concerned when he had medical advice that he he told me not tell his wife. As the should be without his clothes as weeks went on he would be walking much as possible and that he around in various states of would see that as God giving him arousal and it was deeply, deeply a gift. I nodded my acceptance, uncomfortable. My response to because I didn’t know what I was that was to shut it down, and to shut down my emotions and just concentrate hugely on my work.’
Rev Walker was rebuked in 2015 and died a year later.
The Church paid Mrs Kind £40,000 after she launched a civil claim against them, but it has not admitted liability for the vicar’s behaviour.
Mrs Kind told Channel 4 she was warned by a bishop not to talk to the media as it ‘wouldn’t be very godly’. The Church said: ‘We are deeply sorry for the pain and distress these failings have caused.’
A statement from the family of Rev Walker said: ‘We acknowledge and regret any pain and distress that Mrs Kind has suffered.
‘ The Reverend Tom Walker was a much loved and respected parish priest, but he accepted that some aspects of his behaviour whilst he had been in poor mental and physical health had been inappropriate.’