Victor Whitsey


Hubert Victor Whitsey was a Church of England bishop. He was Bishop of Hertford 1971–74 and Bishop of Chester 1974–81.
Whitsey was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. After a curacy in Chorley he became the Vicar of Farington and the Rural Dean of Bolton before his ordination to the episcopate.

Allegations of sexual abuse

In 2016–17 Cheshire Constabulary conducted a 13-month investigation called Operation Coverage to investigate allegations that Victor Whitsey had sexually abused persons who were under the age of consent. In October 2017 the force announced that five male and eight female witnesses had alleged they were victims, and that were Whitsey still alive he would have been interviewed in connection with 10 of those 13 allegations.
Slater and Gordon Lawyers represents four of Whitsey's alleged victims. Through Slater and Gordon, one alleged victim stated:
I longed for 's blessing to achieve my wish of a future as a vicar, serving God and the community. He told me he agreed I had a calling from God. He also told me he had the power to give me everything I wanted in life and the power to take it all away. He then proceeded to abuse me sexually and psychologically. I was powerless to stop him.

The alleged victim, who was a teenage boy at the time, added that as a result he lost his religious faith, started self-harming, and later had a mental breakdown and as a result had attempted suicide.
The current Bishop of Chester, Peter Forster, and the current Archbishop of the Province of York, John Sentamu, have accepted the allegations and issued an apology.