THE Bishop of Chester has accepted he made a “misjudgement” when he allowed a vicar to continue working despite having read a letter from him alluding to child abuse.

Dr Peter Forster had not commented on his involvement in the Charles Dickenson case until he gave evidence under oath at the Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) on Wednesday (July 3).

He accepted that he was the only one to have read the letter in 2009 and failed to pass it on to the police or even to the Diocese of Chester safeguarding adviser.

The Standard and its sister paper the Warrington Guardian were first to lift the lid on the Dickenson case earlier this year, covering his sentencing hearings at Chester and then Liverpool Crown Court.

Now 89, the former vicar at Christ Church in Latchford, Warrington, was jailed for 27 months after pleading guilty to eight counts of sexual assault.

The inquiry heard he had written the letter – previously referred to as a “confession” in court - to accompany his application for a renewal of his PTO (Permission to Officiate) 10 years ago.

All clergy must fill out a confidential disclosure form with their application and one question asks: ‘Has there ever been an allegation that your conduct has caused significant harm to a child?’.

Dickenson ticked the ‘yes’ box and wrote a letter of explanation, parts of which were read out at the inquiry.

In it he said he had received a complaint from a boy’s father in 1974, which he disclosed to the then Bishop of Chester, Victor Whitsey.

Police never became involved and Whitsey – himself now known to be a child abuser – chose to simply move Dickenson to another parish.

In his letter, Dickenson wrote: “He made me make a solemn promise that I would never again interfere with any youngster.”

It was put to Bishop Forster that the tone of the letter “intimates it was truthful” and there was “enough there to raise a concern that this had not been dealt with properly in 1974”.

The bishop, who had gone on to approve Dickenson’s PTO, replied: “I made a judgement that I accept was a misjudgement, that the ongoing risk from Dickenson was very small.”

He added: “Since his conviction the publicity has been very extensive and no hint of impropriety has emerged. It seems his assurance that he would not do this again was borne out.”

Asked again why he had allowed Dickenson to continue working having read the letter, the bishop replied: “I took a view. I’m perfectly prepared to accept that that was a misjudgement. I accept that it wasn’t handled properly at the time.”

He also accepted that there was nothing to prevent him from passing the information to the police in 2009.

“That could have been done, yes,” he told the inquiry.

Things had changed in the past 10 years and now a referral to the police on such matters would happen “automatically”, he said.

Bishop Forster was also grilled on his actions surrounding two other child sex abuse cases.

The first involved Wallasey vicar Rev Ian Hughes, who was jailed for a year in 2014 after he admitted downloading 8,000 indecent images of children.

The inquiry heard that Bishop Forster took immediate action to suspend Hughes following his arrest but post-conviction had consulted with the Church of England’s President of Tribunals on whether to impose a 20-year ban, rather than a lifelong one.

He referred to the seductive nature of the internet, and stressed Hughes was young at 46 and had an exemplary record within the church.

“I knew him well,” Bishop Forster said. “I think he got drawn into a very sick and unsatisfactory situation.”

However, he stressed he had simply been following procedure by consulting with the President of Tribunals and a 20-year-ban would in no way guarantee a return once it had been served.

Risk assessments would be carried out and safeguarding procedures and training in general were far more rigorous these days.

The bishop was also asked about a reported disclosure to him in 2002 of inappropriate behaviour by the late Bishop Victor Whitsey.

He said he did not recall the conversation but believed it may have involved an allegation that Whitsey put his arm around someone.

“He had a reputation of odd behaviour in general,” Bishop Forster told the inquiry. “If someone said something odd about Victor Whitsey it probably wouldn’t have registered, partly because he was somebody who was known to behave in slightly odd ways.”

Cheshire Police began an investigation in 2016 after a church safeguarding adviser in Chester passed on details of alleged abuse by Whitsey.

A year later detectives revealed that they would have spoken to him in relation to 10 of the witness allegations if he had been alive.

Whitsey died in 1987.