George Granville Gibson (born 28 May 1936) is a retired British Anglican priest and convicted sex offender. He was the

Archdeacon of Auckland The archdeaconry of Auckland is a post in the Church of England Diocese of Durham. It was created from the Archdeaconry of Durham by Order-in-Council on 23 May 1882, when the Diocese of Newcastle was created from Durham's other two archdeaconries. ...

in the

Diocese of Durham The Diocese of Durham is a Church of England diocese, based in Durham, and covering the historic county of Durham (and therefore including the part of Tyne and Wear south of the River Tyne, and excluding southern Teesdale). It was created in ...

from 1993 to 2001.'GIBSON, Ven. (George) Granville',

Who's Who 2017 ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It is a book, and also a CD-ROM and a website, giving information on influential people from around the world. Published annually as a book since 1849, it lists people who influence British life, according to i ...

, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2017; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2016; online edn, Nov 201
accessed 1 June 2017
/ref>

Early life and education

Gibson was educated at

Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS) is an independent, public school for boys in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. The school was founded by Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I in 1591 at the request of leading citizens in Wakefield (headed ...

and

Barnsley College Barnsley College is a further education college just outside the town centre of Barnsley, England. It has several campuses, including the SciTech Digital Innovation Centre and The Electric Theatre. The college provides A Levels, apprenticesh ...

. He was a

Mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

Surveyor for the NCB from 1952 to 1962; then a

Field Officer A senior officer is an officer of a more senior grade in military or other uniformed services. In military organisations, the term may refer to any officer above junior officer rank, but usually specifically refers to the middle-ranking group of ...

for

Boys' Brigade The Boys' Brigade (BB) is an international interdenominational Christian youth organisation, conceived by the Scottish businessman Sir William Alexander Smith to combine drill and fun activities with Christian values. Following its inception ...

from 1962 to 1969. He studied for

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform v ...

Cuddesdon Cuddesdon is a mainly rural village in South Oxfordshire centred ESE of Oxford. It has the largest Church of England clergy training centre, Ripon College Cuddesdon. Residents number approximately 430 in Cuddesdon's nucleated village centre a ...

. He was ordained deacon in 1971 and priest in 1972.

Ordained ministry

Gibson was a curate at St Paul's, Cullercoats from 1971 to 1973. After that he was

Team Vicar Vicar is a title given to certain parish priests in the Church of England and other Anglican churches. It has played a significant role in Anglican church organisation in ways that are different from other Christian denominations. The title is ver ...

Cramlington Cramlington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, 6 miles (9 kilometres) north of Newcastle upon Tyne, and 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of its city centre. The name suggests a probable founding by the Danes or Anglo-Saxons. T ...

from 1973 to 1977;

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

Newton Aycliffe Newton Aycliffe is a town in County Durham, England. Founded in 1947 under the New Towns Act of 1946, the town sits about five miles to the north of Darlington and ten miles to the south of Durham. It is the oldest new town in the north of Eng ...

from 1977 to 1985; and then

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of St Michael and All Angels, Bishopwearmouth from 1985 until his appointment as

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

. He was Interim Priest at

St James the Great, Darlington The Church of St James the Great is a Church of England parish church in Darlington, County Durham. The church is a grade II listed building. History The parish was created in 1872 when it was taken out of the parish of St John's Church, Darlin ...

from 2012 to 2014.

Later life and conviction

Gibson was arrested in April 2014 in relation to historic sexual offences. In August 2016, he was found guilty of two counts of

indecent assault Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in some common law-based jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime and has significant overlap with offences referred to as sexual assault. England and Wales Indecent assault was a broa ...

, and also " not guilty of one serious sexual offence and four indecent assault charges". He had assaulted two men, who were 18 and 26 at the time of the offences, in the 1970s and 1980s when he was vicar at St Claire's Church, Newton Aycliffe. In October 2016, he was given a 12-month prison sentence. In 2018, he was charged with three further counts of indecent assault in the 1980s. He denied the charges, but was convicted and sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment in July 2019. A 2017 independent report on the Diocese of Durham's handling of cases involving Gibson, which found that complaints about his behaviour had been dismissed as "drunkenness", and that he had been arrogant about his senior position in the Church, was published in December 2020. Gibson was jailed again for similar offences, for 21 months, in November 2022. The trial judge said that Gibson could have avoided this prosecution by admitting to these offences at either of his previous trials.

Personal life

In 1958, Gibson married Edna ('' née'' Jackson), and they had three sons and a daughter. Edna died in 2016.

References

External links

Report on the Diocese of Durham handling of the cases of former Rev Granville Gibson
1936 births Alumni of Ripon College Cuddesdon People educated at Barnsley College People educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield Archdeacons of Auckland Living people English people convicted of indecent assault Violence against men in the United Kingdom {{York-archdeacon-stub