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image captionGranville Gibson was jailed in 2016 and 2019 for historical sexual offences
Church officials dismissed claims a priest was sexually abusing young men as drunkenness , a report has found.
Granville Gibson was jailed in 2016 and again last year for sexual offences committed in the 1970s and 80s.
In a review of how the Diocese of Durham handled complaints about Gibson, clinical psychologist Dr Stephanie Hill said a number of red flags were missed.
The Bishop of Durham reiterated an apology made to the victims in 2016.
Dr Hill carried out her review in 2017 but it has only now been published having been delayed by police investigations and the coronavirus outbreak.
Church officials dismissed behaviour of touchy touchy feely feely clergyman as drunkenness
George Granville Gibson was jailed in 2016 and 2019 for indecent assaults on young men in the 1970s and 1980s - now a review has said a number of red flags were missed by the church
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Church of England dismissed priest s sexual abuse as drunkenness
Diocese of Durham missed a number of red flags during handling of complaints, says report
17 December 2020 • 2:54pm
Dr Stephanie Hill carried out her review in 2017 but it has only now been published having been delayed by police investigations as well as the coronavirus pandemic
Credit: Lynne Cameron/PA
Church of England officials dismissed claims that a priest was sexually abusing young men as drunkenness , a report has found.
Granville Gibson was jailed in 2016 and again last year for sexual offences committed in the 1970s and 1980s.
In a review of how the Diocese of Durham handled complaints about Gibson, clinical psychologist Dr Stephanie Hill said that church officials missed a number of red flags .
Granville Gibson AN independent report into the behaviour of a disgraced clergyman showed how church leaders dismissed concerns as ‘drunkenness’ amid concerns he was targeting young men. George Granville Gibson faced three charges of indecent assault against two young men, a “vulnerable” teenager in the 1970s and a young man in the 1980s when he appeared in court last year. The former Archdeacon of Auckland was found guilty of indecently assaulting a teenage boy while he helped paint his vicarage nearly 40 years ago. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison after the jury unanimously found him guilty of attacking the teenage boy twice in his vicarage at St Clare’s Church, in Newton Aycliffe.