The Diocese of Oxford has revealed that when safeguarding concerns first emerged about the Reverend David Fletcher in 2017, his former church handled them in-house and did not refer them to the Diocesan Safeguarding Team.

Fletcher was Rector of St Ebbe’s, the conservative evangelical flagship church in Oxford, from 1986 to 1998 and continued to attend there after his retirement. From 1967 to 1986 he led the Iwerne evangelical camps in Dorset where the savage serial abuser John Smyth groomed his victims from the elite English boarding schools.

Fletcher, who died in 2022, was central in the cover-up of Smyth’s abuses, the Church of England’s Makin Review into the scandal revealed last November.

In February Channel 4 News reported that Fletcher was himself an abuser of women and girls. Investigative broadcaster, Cathy Newman, interviewed three women who described their sexual abuse by Fletcher in the 1970s and 1980s.

After a brief initial statement following the revelations, St Ebbe’s issued a fuller joint statement with Oxford Diocese. It said: ‘In 2017, following a report of him being inappropriately tactile with a member of the church, David Fletcher was told to avoid physical contact that had any possibility of being considered inappropriate.   

‘In 2019, David Fletcher’s behaviour was again raised when a report of inappropriate tactility was passed to St Ebbe’s via a third party. This was referred to the Diocesan Safeguarding Team, who confirmed that the appropriate action had been taken in 2017 and advised that the report did not meet the threshold for further action. The person who passed on the third hand report from the unnamed individual, was told to encourage the woman to make direct contact with the safeguarding team but she chose not to. 

‘In 2021, St Ebbe’s heard indirectly of a couple who had approached David Fletcher to confront him about his behaviour some years previously. The couple were contacted and encouraged to make a report to the Diocese, which they did. David Fletcher was seriously ill at this point and, as he was no longer attending church, no further action was taken.’

Last month, Evangelicals Now (EN) ran a news story on the David Fletcher scandal. The EN story by Nicola Laver quoted a spokesperson for the Diocese of Oxford, clarifying how the St Ebbe’s leadership handled the disclosures: ‘The 2017 complaint was handled by St Ebbe’s when first reported. When further disclosures were received, St Ebbe’s then referred to the DST.’

2017 was the year Channel 4 News broke open the scale and severity of Smyth’s abuses and the cover-up by David Fletcher and the inner circle of Iwerne leaders.

Oxford Diocese confirmed that more allegations about Fletcher involving adult women have now been received. EN reported: ‘The Diocese would not say how many allegations it has received to protect those making disclosures.’

But the Diocese confirmed that the St Ebbe’s leadership have sought external advice and are proposing to their Parochial Church Council that an external body be involved.

‘It looks likely an external body will be commissioned to undertake an independent investigation into Fletcher,’ EN said.

Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in the UK.