Police cleared Oxford dean after probe into cathedral 'sex assault': Officers interviewed Professor Martyn Percy and decided no further action should be taken... but he still faces college inquiry into 'hair stroking'

Police investigated claims that the head of Oxford’s grandest college sexually assaulted a woman inside the city’s cathedral, it was revealed last night.

However, officers cleared him and decided ‘no further action’ would be taken days after interviewing the Very Reverend Professor Martyn Percy, the Dean of Christ Church.

Nevertheless, it is understood the college’s governing body is pressing ahead with a fresh attempt to oust Professor Percy after a separate internal inquiry Christ Church commissioned into the alleged incident.

Claims: Prof Martyn Percy has been accused of stroking a woman’s hair and complimenting her on her appearance

The 58-year-old has been accused of stroking a woman’s hair and complimenting her on her appearance in the cathedral sacristy – a side room where vestments are kept – after a service this year.

Oxford’s cathedral, where he also serves as dean, lies within the college precincts.

Professor Percy has always denied any impropriety.

It is the latest twist in a toxic saga which has pitted don against don at Christ Church for more than three years.

His friends now intend to write to the Charity Commission, arguing that the outcome of the Thames Valley police inquiries means that the Christ Church report cannot be used to remove him.

The college’s internal investigation was led by retired police inspector Kate Wood.

She concluded that the complaint against Professor Percy was ‘credible’, and that although the woman is an adult, his actions could have breached church safeguarding rules.

Mrs Wood recommended the matter be referred to the police and church disciplinary bodies. 

As a result of the allegation, Christ Church last month instituted strict rules to prevent Professor Percy from coming into contact with staff. 

He announced he was stepping back from his duties at both the college and the cathedral, though he hoped to return after Christmas.

58-year-old Very Reverend Professor Martyn Percy has always denied any impropriety

And in a highly unusual intervention last month, the Diocese of Oxford responded to critics of the investigation, saying downplaying the severity of the allegation against Professor Percy would ‘belittle the complainant and only add to the distress of anyone else considering a complaint against someone in a senior position’.

The dean and Mrs Wood were previously involved in another dispute – the case of the late Bishop of Chichester, George Bell. 

In 2015, 57 years after his death, the Church of England paid £16,800 damages and issued an apology to a woman who claimed he had sexually abused her as a girl.

In the furore that followed, Professor Percy was among Bell’s most prominent public defenders. In 2017, the top criminal law QC Lord Carlile issued a damning report, saying the ‘deficient’ process followed by the Church ‘core group’ that handled the case was guilty of a ‘rush to judgment’.

Mrs Wood attended two of the early core group meetings, but sources insisted yesterday she supported Lord Carlile’s findings. She was not personally criticised in the report.

Last year, Professor Percy was cleared of ‘scandalous and immoral’ conduct by an internal tribunal, which had a retired High Court judge as chairman.

Professor Percy’s friends say the dispute arose because he tried to reform the college’s welfare provision in the wake of the case of Lavinia Woodward – a former medical student given a suspended jail sentence in 2018 after stabbing her boyfriend while high on class A drugs.

The dean has launched an employment tribunal case, due to be heard next year, claiming he was being penalised as a whistleblower and experiencing discrimination.

Christ Church said last night the woman’s allegation against the dean was being dealt with in accordance with the college’s internal processes.

A spokesman said: ‘Christ Church has a statutory duty thoroughly and properly to investigate any such allegation it has received.’ 

They added that the inquiry had found the complainant’s account to be ‘credible, true and consistent’.