The former bishop of Liverpool knew about a child sex abuser 20 years before he was brought to justice, it has emerged, as a judge criticised the church for threatening a complainant with prison unless he withdrew his allegation.

Bishop James Jones, who has since chaired inquiries into the Hillsborough disaster and Gosport War Memorial Hospital scandal, was bishop of Hull in 1997 when he was told by a young man that he had been abused by Canon Terence Grigg, then a rector at St Mary’s church in Cottingham, Yorkshire.

Earlier this month Grigg, now 84, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for 14 sex offences against victims as young as 10, though he was acquitted of the charge relating to this complainant.

At his sentencing Judge Jonathan Rose said Grigg had been the “beneficiary” of the Church’s treatment of the complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons.