Church ‘used NDA to hush up report into sex case vicar’

THE Church of England was last night accused of using non-disclosure agreements to hush up a sexual harassment case involving one of its vicars.

Jo Kind, a former assistant at St John’s Church in Harborne, Birmingham, alleged she was forced to sign an NDA before reading the official review into how her case was investigated.

She accused the Rev Tom Walker of taking off his clothes in front of her and walking around the vicarage in “various states of arousal” during the late Eighties and early Nineties.

The use of NDAS has become a matter of public debate after The Daily Telegraph published allegations about their use by Sir Philip Green.

Mrs Kind told Channel 4 News yesterday that she felt the Church had wanted to protect the memory of Rev Walker, who died in 2016.

A copy of the report seen by the broadcaster delivered damning findings about how her case was handled by the Bishop of Birmingham in 2011. It found the Church “fell short on a number of basic standards of complaint handling” and said Bishop David Urquhart “lacked adequate knowledge of safeguarding and the capacity to manage the process”.

The Church paid Mrs Kind £40,000 after she launched a civil claim, but admitted no liability, Channel 4 reported.

Earlier this year the Archbishop of Canterbury questioned the use of NDAS, telling the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse they were “dangerous” and created suspicion.

Mrs Kind last night claimed she was warned by an unnamed bishop not to talk to the media. Explaining her decision to speak publicly, she said: “I have asked for 10 years for the Church to speak up about this and they haven’t.”

The Church of England in Birmingham said: ‘We are deeply sorry for the pain and distress these failings caused. The decision not to publish the report related to concerns regarding the safeguarding of the many contributors.”