David Oakley, the 70-year-old Bishop of Northampton, is seeking to have criminal charges against him dismissed, having been accused of indecently assaulting and raping a girl of 15 in the early 2000s, when he was a Catholic priest in his mid-40s. The case, brought after a Staffordshire Police investigation, matters because it involves a senior Catholic Church figure and allegations of grooming and abuse of a child by a clergyman entrusted with pastoral care.

Prosecutors allege the pair "started dating" after a pilgrimage to Lourdes, where Oakley is said to have kissed the girl, before later raping her at a presbytery and on a canal boat; the alleged victim recalls sex with him on at least two occasions. Oakley, born in Stourbridge and ordained in 1980, became Bishop of Northampton in 2020 but has stepped back from public ministry since his arrest in September 2025. He was charged in June and appeared at the Old Bailey, where he was granted conditional bail ahead of a further hearing on 4 January.