A VICAR was duped by a parishioner who claimed she was dying in order to stay in his home and accuse him of having sex with her, a tribunal has ruled.

The Rev William Bulloch, the vicar of St James the Great Church, Leigh, was the victim of a “deeply disturbing” campaign of manipulation.

Mr Bulloch’s suspicions were aroused when the unnamed woman was seen walking around a hospital despite claiming to be wheelchair-bound.

When Mr Bulloch confronted the woman and told her he would no longer give her pastoral care, she accused him of having sex with her.

The saga, from late 2016 to early 2017, has been detailed in a 40-page church tribunal report.

The complaint was brought under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) by the Archdeacon of Southend, the Ven. Michael Lodge, in November 2017.

It was also found the woman, known as “AB” in the report, had fabricated more than 100 emails claiming to be from a psychiatrist and medical professional which claimed to “prove” her terminal illness.

After the pastoral care was withdrawn, the woman waged a vicious campaign against the vicar, including threats to spread claims about a sexual relationship, sending “flowers for the baby” to his home, and made an urn with his name on it.

She also manipulated Mr Bulloch into telling her own daughter, aged seven, she was dying and would “soon be in heaven”; the disciplinary board described this as “astonishing” and “particularly chilling”.

The board found that the sexual relationship “was not established in the evidence” and dismissed the woman’s claim of adultery in a majority verdict.

However, they also stated Mr Bulloch had acted “extremely naively” and “without any appropriate sense of boundaries”.

The ruling was published on January 20, and A penalty for Mr Bulloch’s admissions is being considered.