FORMER bishop Roderick Wright and Ms Kathleen MacPhee are believed to have fled the town of Kendal in the English Lake District where they lived for the past fortnight. They are frying to escape the media circus which gathered following the publication yesterday of their story, which they sold to a tabloid.
The church authorities in Scotland said Dr Wright's decision to sell the story to a newspaper was "deplorable". A joint statement from the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Thomas Winning, and Archbishop Keith O'Brien, made clear their disappointment with Dr Wright. It said: "We regard the sale of his story by Roderick Wright as deplorable ... It does show Roderick up in a very, very bad light."
The disappearance of Dr Wright and Ms MacPhee coincided with the publication of a two page interview with the couple in the News of the World. In it, Dr Wright claimed he and Ms MacPhee had "never made love to each other. We did hold each other and gave each other a kiss but only on the cheek or on the forehead, never on the lips."
But Kendal residents said they saw the couple "struggle to carry a double mattress" into the house.