The former Archbishop of York has been forced to step down from his position in the Church of England following revelations about his handling of a historic child sex abuse case.

This week, a review of the case commissioned by the Church’s safeguarding team, found that Lord John Sentamu failed to act on a victim’s disclosure of child sex abuse at the hands of a Church of England priest in the 1980s in Bradford.

Lord Sentamu, who served as the Archbishop of York between 2005 and 2020, and who has been an honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Newcastle, has already rejected the findings of the report.

The Church has formally apologised to the retired vicar Matthew Ineson, who was 16 when he was abused by the late Reverend Trevor Devamanikkam in the 1980s and has waived his legal right to anonymity.

The Reverend Devamanikkam was charged with six serious sexual offences in May 2017, but committed suicide in the June of that year, before he was due to appear in court.

The Bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, on Friday May 12 “required Lord Sentamu, Honorary Assistant Bishop in Newcastle Diocese, to step back from active ministry until both the findings and his response can be explored further”.

A statement issued by the Diocese of Newcastle confirmed that the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, “is fully supportive of this decision”.

A spokesperson added: “The Diocese of Newcastle remains committed to the highest standards of safeguarding which seeks always to place victims and survivors at the heart of this vital work.”

The review on the historic abuse, by senior social care consultant Jane Humphreys, found that Reverend Ineson had sent a June 2013 letter to the then bishop of Sheffield in which he disclosed the historical abuse he had suffered, and copied it to the then archbishop of York.

In it, the victim said he had already disclosed twice to the bishop of Sheffield his non-recent abuse, but the bishop had not acted on this.

The review said the then archbishop of York had replied to acknowledge the communication, adding: “Please be assured of my prayers and best wishes during this testing time.”

Ms Humphreys concluded that the archbishop of York should have sought advice from his diocesan safeguarding adviser at the time on how to proceed with the letter he had received.

The Northern Echo approached Lord Sentamu for a comment on the Diocese’s decision to remove him from active ministry.