Bishop ‘raped girl, 15, in church and on canal boat and kissed her during pilgrimage to holy town’

NewsUK News Bishop of Northampton ‘raped 15-year-old girl after going on pilgrimage to Lourdes’. David Oakley, 70, is accused of twice having sex with the girl, who was 15 at the time, in the early 2000s. Oakley, who was then in his mid-40s and working as a Catholic priest, was charged in June with two counts of rape of a girl under the age of 16, following an investigation by Staffordshire Police’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences team. Credit: Catholics Bishops' Conference of England and Wales A BISHOP allegedly raped a 15-year-old girl in a presbytery and kissed her during a pilgrimage to Lourdes, a court heard. David Oakley is charged with indecent assault and two counts of rape against the girl in the early 2000s. The 70-year-old, then in his mid-40s and working as a Catholic priest, allegedly kissed her at the pilgrimage to the French town of Lourdes. He is also accused of raping her in a presbytery and a canal boat, according to court documents. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Oakley, who is on conditional bail, appeared at Old Bailey today with the next hearing set for January 4. Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard previously the Bishop of Northampton and the girl “started dating… after going on a pilgrimage to Lourdes”. Prosecutor Sarah Madden said: “She recalls sex with the defendant on at least two occasions.” Oakley was charged in June following an investigation by Staffordshire Police’s rape and serious sexual offences team. Lourdes, in South West France, attracts throngs of pilgrims every year to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. Oakley, who was born in Stourbridge in the West Midlands and ordained as a priest in 1980, became Bishop of Northampton in 2020. Most read in The Sun He is currently withdrawn from public ministry, having been first arrested by police in September 2025.