The Bishop of Liverpool has announced his retirement days after facing allegations of misconduct from two women, including another bishop.

One woman said the Right Reverend Dr John Perumbalath kissed her without consent and groped her on separate occasions between 2019 and 2023, while the second, a female bishop, accused him of sexual harassment in 2023.

The Rt Revd Beverley Mason, the Bishop of Warrington, later named herself as a second complainant in a statement.

“A bishop cannot be above the law. A bishop cannot be dealt differently from a priest.

“If anything, a bishop must be held to greater scrutiny. This is a biblical imperative,” she said.

Bishop Perumbalath, 58, has vehemently denied the allegations – and in his retirement letter, published online on Thursday, he reiterated his denial.

The letter, shared by the Diocese of Liverpool, read: “Having sought the permission of His Majesty the King, I have today taken the decision to retire from active ministry in the Church of England.”

Addressing the accusations, he continued: “Since those allegations were made I have consistently maintained that I have not done anything wrong and continue to do so.

“I do not wish this story to become a distraction for this incredible diocese and its people whom it has been an honour and joy to serve,” the bishop says in his letter.

“This is not a resignation occasioned by fault or by any admission of liability.”

The exact date for when the bishop’s role will formally end is yet to be decided, but he is stepping back from ministering and leading the diocese as of Thursday.

The letter continued: “I have taken this decision for my own well-being, my family and the best interests of the Diocese.

“I have informed the Archbishop of York of my decision and I understand he will put in place the necessary arrangements for episcopal oversight of the diocese for the remainder of my time here and during the vacancy.”

The Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell – who has faced calls to resign over separate safeguarding failures – said: “I respect his decision and thank him for his ministry.”

“My thoughts and prayers continue to be with all those who have been affected by this situation,” he continued. “I am committed to ensuring stability during this time of transition and will be putting the necessary arrangements in place to provide episcopal oversight for the diocese.”

An acting bishop will be announced in the coming days.

The diocese – which on Wednesday pressured the bishop to step aside – said in a statement: “We acknowledge his decision in taking this step for the good of the Diocese of Liverpool.

“This is a deeply painful situation, and we hold all concerned in our prayers.”

The misconduct allegations were reported by Channel 4 earlier this week but first made to the Church of England in 2023.

The Church said the female bishop’s complaint “was looked into according to statutory safeguarding guidance… and an independent risk assessment undertaken”.

“This process concluded that there were no ongoing safeguarding concerns, but a learning outcome was identified with which the bishop fully engaged.”

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A “further disclosure was made by another woman” shortly after, the Church said. This was “assessed not to be a safeguarding matter but a matter of alleged misconduct,” it added.

The Bishop of Warrington, later confirmed in a statement that she is the second complainant.

She said she was advised of a complaint against the Bishop of Liverpool in March 2023, and “raised what I believe were significant concerns, which included my own disclosure”.

She added that “we as a church have not properly and satisfactorily addressed concerns that have been raised,” and hopes that after her disclosure, “there will be no more defensiveness but an honest scrutiny of what we are doing, how we are doing it, where the gaps sit and how we address them”.

Bishop Perumbalath’s resignation comes at a tumultuous time for the Church of England, which has recently seen Justin Welby quit as Archbishop of Canterbury over the handling of another case.

A couple who killed a woman and dumped her dismembered body in a park have been jailed for life.

Steven Sansom and his partner Gemma Watts, 49, previously pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to the murder of Sarah Mayhew, 38, and perverting the course of justice.

Mrs Justice Cutts sentenced Samson to life imprisonment for murder with a whole life order, which means he will never be released from prison, and five years for perverting the course of justice to run concurrently.

It is the second life sentence for Sansom, 45, who was jailed for robbing and murdering a taxi driver in 1999 and released from prison on licence in 2019.

Watts held back tears as she was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 30 years, along with five years for perverting the course of justice.

If she is ever released, she will spend the rest of her life on licence.

The couple are said to have known Ms Mayhew, who was found dead in Rowdown Fields, New Addington in south London, after police were alerted to the discovery of human remains on 2 April last year.

The judge said that Sansom “had murder in mind” and that Watts, who was obsessed with him, took part in the murder.

Ms Mayhew was never seen again after she joined Sansom, whom she had met years before on a dating site, at his ground floor flat in Sutton at about 11pm on March 8 2024.

The judge said: “Her fear and suffering must have been acute as she realised why she was there and what was happening.

“She was an innocent woman lured to that flat to die in order for you could both act out your bloodthirsty and wicked fantasy.”

Sansom is believed to have used the name Red Rum, which is murder spelt backwards, on his profile on Facebook.

On 10 March, a post appeared on the account saying: “Best friends are those who don’t say anything when you show up at their door with a dead body. They just grab a shovel and follow you.”

The pair sat quietly in the dock as details of their “kinky” sexual relationship – including a stream of messages between them about bestiality, humiliation and causing hurt – were outlined at their sentencing hearing.

They indulged in “depraved conversation about sexual activity” and the graphic messages between them soon evolved into becoming more than fantasy.

The judge said there was a “clear and proper inference in my view that this murder involved sexual and sadistic conduct.”

Sansom, from Sutton, southwest London, robbed and slashed the neck of 59-year-old married father-of-two Terence Boyle on Christmas Eve 1998.

He ordered a cab to take him home from East Croydon before attacking driver Mr Boyle, who was described as “a quiet, gentle, unassuming family man”.

He crawled dying from his cab after Sansom attacked him and stole £25 to buy Christmas presents.

Sansom, then 20, laughed afterwards and told a friend: “His kids are going to have to see him in hospital over Christmas,” the court heard at the time.

Singer and actress Marianne Faithfull has died at the age of 78.

A spokesperson said: “It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull.

“Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family.

“She will be dearly missed.”

Faithfull was best known for her 60s hit As Tears Go By, written by The Rolling Stones’ Jagger and Keith Richards.

She also starred in films including The Girl on a Motorcycle and 2007’s Irina Palm, for which she was nominated for a European Film Award for Best Actress.

In recent years, she provided voice work for the 2021 remake of Dune and 2023’s Wild Summon.

Born in 1946, Faithfull started her singing career in 1964 after being discovered by the Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham.

Her self-titled debut album was released a year later, with As Tears Go By reaching number nine on the UK singles chart.

She went on to have a string of successful singles, including Come and Stay with Me, This Little Bird, and Summer Nights, and famously dated Sir Mick from 1966 to 1970.

Faithfull was prolific throughout the 60s, releasing six albums – some only in the UK and some for the US – as well as contributing backing vocals to the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine and inspiring the Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil.

That decade also saw her star in films like 1967’s I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname – where she was one of the first people to say f*** in a mainstream studio film – 1968’s The Girl on a Motorcycle, and Tony Richardson’s 1969 adaptation of Hamlet.

Her relationship with Sir Mick was notorious, with the couple being arrested in 1968 for possession of cannabis.

She was also infamously found by police wearing only a bear skin rug when they arrived for a drugs raid at Richard’s home in 1967.

After breaking up with the Stones frontman, Faithfull spent two years homeless in Soho while suffering from anorexia and heroin addiction, before she started living in a squat.

She wrote in her 1994 autobiography: “For me, being a junkie was an admirable life. It was total anonymity, something I hadn’t known since I was 17.

“As a street addict in London, I finally found it. I had no telephone, no address.”

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In 1979, following success in Ireland with the country-themed Dreamin’ My Dreams, Faithfull released the Grammy-nominated Broken English – widely considered her best album.

She later achieved critical acclaim as a jazz and blues singer with 1987’s Strange Weather and went to rehab that same decade.

Faithfull released a total of 21 solo albums throughout her career. Her most recent was the spoken word album She Walks in Beauty from 2021, which saw her work with frequent Nick Cave collaborator Warren Ellis.

She made a full recovery from breast cancer in 2006, and fell into a coma after catching COVID-19 early in 2020 before recovering.