A Very Oxford Scandal

Something Rotten in the English Establishment

Stephen Bates

The scandal surrounding the attempt by Christ Church College, Oxford, to remove and sack Dean Martyn Percy.

This is a story of ambition, deceit, venom and what turned out to be very expensive skulduggery, that has rumbled on in the press since 2018, about the scandal surrounding the attempt by Christ Church, Oxford to remove and sack their then Dean, the Very Reverend Dr Martyn Percy.

Packed with details which most people will deem unbelievable, not least the accusations that publicly flew around about Percy – insanity, sexual misdemeanours and pilfering money for a start. The College spent £2.5 million in legal costs and in addition had to pay Percy £1.5 million in damages on top of his own legal costs.

This is a story that has to be told for the public good because the episode is symptomatic of something rotten in the English establishment, and with consequences for the Church and State as a whole.

Stephen Bates read Modern History at New College, Oxford before working as a journalist for the BBC, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and the Guardian, where he spent 22 years, successively as a political correspondent, European Affairs Editor in Brussels and religious and royal correspondent. He has also written for the Spectator, New Statesman, Time magazine, Literary Review, and the Tablet.