In March 2019, Forster faced controversy following a child sex abuse scandal in the diocese. A priest who had been accused of sex offences 35 years earlier, wrote confidentially about the allegations in a letter to the Bishop in 2009. The allegations had been fully disclosed to the church authorities in 1974. The letter came to light during a police investigation in 2017 of a previous Bishop of Chester, Victor Whitsey, who has been named in abuse cases as a paedophile. The Church's National Safeguarding Team, instigated a Church Disciplinary Measure (CDM) process against Forster, and while this was considered he agreed to delegate his safeguarding responsibilities to the suffragan Bishop of Birkenhead. The Bishop claimed that he acted in accordance with the policy guidance which applied in 2009, and vigorously contested the allegation. No finding was made against him. An independent report into the Church's handling of the Whitsey allegations was published in October 2020.