Man charges bishop had affair with his wife, threatens lawsuit—UPDATED

According to the woman’s husband, who employed a private detective to track her movements, she was allegedly spotted shopping with him in Brighton in June and the pair exchanged hundreds of text messages.

Love letters between the bishop and the woman written in recent months have reportedly emerged in which he tells her that her husband does not love her. The man, who has filed for divorce, is claiming that the bishop’s penchant for women was well-known among the Catholic hierarchy. He says their failure to take action directly led to the break-up of his marriage.

Bishop Conry told The Mail on Sunday that he had been seen in public with the mother of two and that they had been to the British Museum, a Matisse exhibition and the ballet together.

But he insisted that his relationship with her was not the reason for his resignation, and that he had quit over a different relationship.

The husband’s lawyer said Bishop Conry had been slow to respond on the issue. She said her devastated client appealed to the religious leader for help in saving his marriage, to no avail.

Clare Kirby, of Kirby and Co, said the man was considering action against the Church, although the case was “in its infancy”.

She said: “My client was trying to deal with this confidentially and went to the bishop for help in reconciling his marriage after he became aware that the bishop was the third person in his marriage. I first wrote to the bishop on behalf of my client some months ago, asking him to respond, but heard nothing back.

“I wrote again, but all we got was a menacing letter from the bishop’s lawyers indicating the possibility of defamation proceedings.”

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More details are emerging:

Bishop Conry, 63, said he felt ‘liberated’ knowing he no longer has to bear the burden of his guilt alone.

‘It has been difficult keeping the secret,’ he told the Mail. ‘In some respects I feel very calm. It is liberating. It is a relief. I have been very careful not to make sexual morality a priority [in his sermons]. I don’t think it got in the way of my job, I don’t think people would say I have been a bad bishop. But I can’t defend myself. I did wrong. Full stop.’

Bishop Conry – a leading religious figure close to Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the head of the Church in England and Wales – became a bishop in 2001.

He is sworn to celibacy and has for years preached about the Church’s ‘moral authority’ and the importance of the sanctity of family life.

On Saturday, however, he resigned, admitting he had been ‘unfaithful to his promises’ in ‘a relationship of six years ago’.

He has also been seen in public more recently with a married mother of two, who was one of his parishioners. In a handwritten love letter dated earlier this month, he wrote to the 43-year-old woman: ‘It’s all right to say that [your husband] did bad things, but you knew that he didn’t love you.

‘You know (I hope) that I did. And I did, and do.’ The letter was signed: ‘your K xxxxxx.’

They are said to have been close for more than a year and reportedly exchanged hundreds of text messages. The married parishioner was seen spending at least three nights at the bishop’s home and they visited the British Museum, a Matisse exhibition and the ballet together.

They were also photographed walking together one Saturday carrying groceries. Bishop Conry and the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, allegedly became close after the woman and her husband started to take part in church activities last summer.