Stephen Timmis Charged: Former Acts 29 CEO and Wife Face Eight Rape Counts in Sheffield

Sheffield woke to the news in the first days of November, though the charges themselves had been announced days earlier. Stephen Timmis, 68, and his wife Janet Timmis, 61, have each been charged with eight counts of alleged rape against one victim, following a report of non-recent sexual abuse, according to a South Yorkshire Police statement reported by both the Christian Post and Christianity Today.

The alleged offences are said to have taken place between May and September 2008, while Stephen Timmis was a church leader at The Crowded House Church in Sheffield, England. Every word in this article about the alleged offences is kept to what the police statement and the two reports say.

The Timmises have been charged, and they are alleged to have committed the offences named in the charges. No finding of guilt is stated here, no plea is reported, and no detail of any alleged act is given, because no detail of any alleged act appears in either opened source.

The person named in the charges is described in the sources only as one victim, and no further detail about that person is given here. Police announced the charges on 29 October 2026, according to Christianity Today, and the two reports read for this article are dated 2–3 November.

The charges are therefore reported here as charges now reported in Christian media, not as charges laid on 3–4 November. Both Stephen Timmis and Janet Timmis were released on bail and are scheduled to appear at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on 1 December 2026, the Christian Post and Christianity Today report.

Stephen Timmis Charged Alleged Offences 2008 Sheffield Police Statement

South Yorkshire Police appealed for anyone with information that could help the investigation to come forward, the Christian Post reports. The police said: “Our inquiries have led us to believe there may be individuals in the community who may have previously been members of the church, with information which could be relevant to our investigation.”

Anyone with information is asked to quote investigation number 14/229723/24. Police did not say whether the person making the allegation was a member of the church, the Christian Post reports, and this article does not claim that.

The Crowded House Church, founded by Timmis in 2000, is an influential Reformed Evangelical church now rebranded as Redeemer Church Sharrow Vale, the Christian Post reports. Timmis resigned as an elder there in February 2020 following allegations of leadership abuse, and Acts 29 removed him as chief executive amid allegations of “abusive leadership,” the Christian Post reports.

Those earlier allegations concerned leadership, and they are not the same as the alleged criminal offences now charged. Redeemer Church Sharrow Vale leaders responded to the news of the charges in a statement to the Christian Post on Tuesday 3 November.

“We are shocked and saddened by this news. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected,” the leaders said. They said they are “cooperating fully with South Yorkshire Police,” and Christianity Today reports the same statement via The Roys Report.

Former Acts 29 CEO Stephen Timmis 2020 Review Background

The background to Timmis’s departure from church leadership was examined in a 98-page independent learning review commissioned by the church elders in 2020, the Christian Post reports. The review was conducted by thirtyone:eight, and it “noted that no allegations of criminal or illegal conduct had been made” at that time.

It concluded that Timmis’s leadership and the wider church culture left many members feeling pressured to conform, with too little accountability, and Timmis declined to take part in the review. That review did not investigate or cover the alleged 2008 offences now charged, because no criminal allegations had been made at the time it was written.

Keeping those two stories apart is essential to reporting either one fairly. Christianity Today reports further background from February 2020, when about 15 people who worked under Timmis came forward in a report describing intimidation and bullying, and Timmis resigned from Acts 29 days later.

Acts 29’s network today counts 650 churches across 50 countries, Christianity Today reports, as context only. Acts 29 as an organisation is not linked to these charges in either source, and this article does not link it: the charges concern Timmis’s time as a church leader at The Crowded House, and the alleged offences are said to have occured between May and September 2008.

Timmis later co-founded Eastside Community Church in Sheffield in 2022 and served as a leader and trustee there as recently as this year, both sources report. Eastside Community Church did not immediately respond to the Christian Post’s request for comment, and Timmis and his wife “were not immediately available to respond to a request for comment,” Christianity Today reports.

Church life in Britain, and the pressures facing congregations and cathedrals, are covered in Wasted Money in a Diminishing Church: Report Warns Church of England Faces Financial Disaster and in Latest: Southwell Minster Could Close in 2027 as 900 Year Old Cathedral Runs Out of Money. Other British church stories include UK Church Fights Street Preaching Ban as 27,000 Sign Petition, Latest: Alpha Founder Nicky Gumbel Elected to Church of England Synod, and Jesus Statue Decapitated at St Alban's Church Warrington War Memorial Vandalised as Hate Crime.

The next step in this story is a court date, not a conclusion. On 1 December, Stephen Timmis and Janet Timmis are scheduled to appear at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court to answer the charges against them, and what happens in that courtroom will decide how this painful chapter for Sheffield’s church community unfolds.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.