A senior Church of England vicar has revealed how he faced “ostracism and suspension” after exposing his church’s “mishandling” of a historic abuse case.

Reverend Stephen Kuhrt of Christ Church New Malden told GB News he was met with “massive opposition” when he insisted on investigating abuse allegations that had been “buried” before his time at the church.


The case ultimately led to a prosecution, but Rev Kuhrt’s persistence in highlighting how poorly it had been handled resulted in what he describes as attempts to “weaponize safeguarding” against him

He told GB News: “Justice is a crucial thing, I was really tenacious. I insisted it was dealt with and it resulted in a prosecution. Basically, I wouldn’t then go quiet about how badly it had been handled and how badly I’ve been treated when I insisted that it was dealt with.

Reverend Stephen Kuhr

Reverend Stephen Kuhr said he was met with “massive opposition”

GB News

“As time went on, this caused more and more annoyance. So eventually they turned it around on me and they said, we’re going to do a review of your ministry, ostensibly to look at the issues I was concerned with, But pretty much to weaponize safeguarding against me.

“I wrote a long document in which I shared all of the details of how badly the safeguarding cases I’d been involved in had been.

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“In this particular case, it had been flagged up at the church before my time. They dealt with it in-house. They’d sort of buried it, they’d hoped it would go away.

“That was a fault with the church, the local church itself. But once I was aware of this, I went to see my archdeacon, who’s the next in line to a bishop and made it clear that I was really concerned about this. It needed investigation, totally expecting him to take it really seriously.

“Instead, he was furious, really angry that I was really nonplussed about this. I came back to my church and ran it as well as possible.

“Then more evidence emerged and I thought, ‘well, if I go back with a tiny amount of evidence, they’ll just push this away’. So I made sure there was enough evidence that they had no choice but to deal with it, and it resulted in a prosecution that later came back to bite me, because eventually, 15 years later, a complaint was made against me, which included the fact that I broke regulations on how I handled this.”

Rev Kuhrt explained that he discovered the abuse case had previously been dealt with “in-house” by the church before his arrival, with attempts to suppress it.

He was suspended for five and a half months during the Covid pandemic, which he characterised as “very vicious and nasty”.

After his suspension ended, Kuhrt says he received only an email telling him to return to work, with no formal return interview. He claims he hasn’t met with his diocese and bishops since the suspension.

Kuhrt acknowledged making a significant error when he shared detailed documentation about the case with a group of Church of England safeguarding campaigners.

Reverend Stephen Kuhr

Reverend Stephen Kuhr shared his story with Patrick on GB News

GB News

“My big mistake, and it was a mistake, is I didn’t redact the names of people that were mentioned in it,” he told GB News.

This oversight provided his critics with an opportunity to take action against him.

“You showed them a chink in the armour. You were being a real pain. And boy, did they go for it,” he said, reflecting on how others had characterised the situation.

A Diocese of Southwark spokesman said the diocese had “a very different perspective on these matters and utterly refutes any suggestion of gaslighting or intimidation”.

Rev Kuhrt has written a book about his experiences titled “Safeguarding the Institution: How the Culture of the Church of England Facilitates Abuse.”