When cap's removed at church, person is revealed to be criminal's associate (8)
I believe the answer is:
henchman
'associate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'when cap's removed at church person is revealed to be criminal's' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'church' could be 'ch' (common abbreviation) and 'ch' is located in the answer.
'person' could be 'man' (man is a kind of person) and 'man' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'hen' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for henchman that I've seen before include "Supporter, minion" , "Follower prepared to behave dishonestly" , "abettor in crime?" , "Follower of a criminal gang chief" , "Faithful attendant" .)