Vicar sacked for baptising in his boxer shorts and touching parishioners' bottoms
An experienced vicar has been sacked from his job after he was found to have touched two parishioners on their backsides and carried out a baptism in his boxer shorts.
A Church of England tribunal panel concluded in February that the conduct of the Reverend Clive Roger Evans, the vicar of Bromyard & Stoke Lacy and the Rural Dean of Bromyard, was unbecoming or inappropriate to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders.
It also banned him from carrying out ordained functions for six months.
The rulings, published on the Church of England website says: "The Panel considers the misconduct it has found in this case to be serious.
"It involves the non-consensual touching of a child’s bottom, inappropriate touching of her mother on her bottom and an unjustified state of undress during the conduct of a baptism in the family’s private home.
"Each of these are significant departures from the very high standards expected and required of the clergy."
Mr Evans, who had been suspended in 2019, had denied the charges but the panel "found that there were some limited areas of his evidence where his answers revealed untruthfulness".
"We ultimately resolved on the balance of probabilities that in some limited but critical respects, Reverend Evans had not told the truth," they found.
They also ruled that he had "lied in relation to his denials of touching Person 2’s bottom and the majority were content that he lied in his denial of touching Person 1’s bottom."
A four-day tribunal panel meeting held from December 6-9 last year cross-examined a number of witnesses.
Mr Evans had been accused of performing a full immersion baptism in a parishioner's home whilst wearing only his boxer shorts on April 18, 2017.
In or around February 2018 he was accused of touching a person, then a child, on her bottom without her consent; and on March 3, 2019 touched a person on her bottom without her consent.
Mr Evans's counsel, Justin Gau, had argued that performing a baptism in boxer shorts "boils down simply to the fact that the respondent was incorrectly vested."
But the panel ruled that the baptism, in a bath, was conduct unbecoming or inappropriate to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders. The baptism was recorded on video by the family.
A member of the family said: "Clive then started to remove his shirt which I thought was fair enough seeing as he didn’t want to get it wet, however when he started taking his shorts off I was shocked and thought to myself why is he undressing completely in front of my mother, my sister and I."
The tribunal also heard that the family were pleased and that in due course attended church and joyously shared the news of his baptism with the congregation, which was well-received within the church.
In mitigation the Panel heard six character references, and had evidence of Mr Evans's good character and skill in office. He was of good character and had no previous record of misconduct, they found.
"He had clearly undertaken faithful ministry for many years to good effect," the ruling says.
The Panel concluded that "he ought, in the Panel’s view, to have known better, acted more responsibly and with far greater restraint, insight and self-control than he did in relation to each charge.
In addition to the penalties imposed in the ruling published on February 23, Mr Evans was ordered to undertake and complete, prior to the recommencement of ministry, training courses relating to safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults; pastoral boundaries; appropriate working, diversity and inclusion and external relationships. He will also be supervised for one year.
