Oxford vice principal wins £40,000 for unfair sacking

THE vice principal of an Oxford University theological college has won more than £40,000 after being wrongly sacked over the handling of a child sex abuse allegation against a priest.

The Rev Dr James Lawson was dismissed for gross misconduct for failing to follow the correct procedures after he was approached by a survivor of historic mistreatment. That person had told Dr Lawson – who at the time was acting principal of the Society of St Stephen’s House – the case was “very much closed” and suggested the abuse had been physical rather than sexual. As a result, counselling was organised for them, an employment tribunal heard, but Dr Lawson never escalated the matter.

The panel heard Dr Lawson, while in charge of safeguarding, had never dealt with a matter as serious as this and did not make a record of it or report it to the relevant bodies. Later on, the survivor told the Rev Lucy Gardner, one of Dr Lawson’s colleagues, that they had in fact also been sexually abused and that the alleged perpetrator had been in touch and offered them money.

The tribunal panel heard that when the Rev Canon Dr Robin Ward, who had since returned from a sabbatical and resumed his role as principal at St Stephen’s, learned of this he “panicked”.

He proceeded to sack Dr Lawson for gross misconduct on the basis that he had not recorded and reported the matter appropriately.

Dr Lawson has now been awarded £40,292 in compensation after the tribunal found it was “wholly unreasonable” that he was sacked and concluded that he had been shown “absolutely no courtesy” during the dismissal process.

The college is an Anglican theological foundation and one of just six permanent private halls of Oxford University.