Catholic Church hit by abuse allegations

An average of one Roman Catholic priest every week was accused of sexual abuse in England and Wales last year but none has been prosecuted and all but two are still in their jobs, a report said yesterday.

A further 10 allegations were made of physical, emotional or other abuse by priests, volunteers and employees of the Church, bringing total complaints for the year to 62, according to the report by the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children (COPCA).

There were also 51 reports of "inappropriate behaviour" towards children which were dealt with internally by the Church after consultation with police and social services.

COPCA was set up on the recommendation of the Nolan report, which was commissioned in 2001 by the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor to look into the problem of abuse in the Church.

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor became embroiled in the scandal himself after he admitted making mistakes as a bishop in the 1980s when he moved a priest suspected of child abuse to a new job instead of investigating fully. The priest has since served two prison terms for abuse. Lord Nolan, who conducted the 2001 inquiry, said yesterday's report showed progress was now being made in the fight against abuse which has dogged the Catholic Church for years.

"Progress has been achieved at a time of continuing public awareness and concern about the handling of such issues by the Catholic Church, not only in England and Wales but also in Ireland, America Canada and Australia," he said in the report.

"Abuse is not solely a problem among priests... sadly within the Church community it is also committed by employees and volunteers."

The United States Catholic Church has been rocked by an abuse scandal this year after two studies released in February showed that more than 10,600 children said they were molested by priests since 1950 in an epidemic of child sexual abuse involving at least four per cent of the US Catholic clergy.

Most of the victims were male, many of them boys aged between 11 and 14.

The COPCA report showed that the 62 UK claims last year were made by a total of 86 victims, suggesting some employees had been the subject of multiple accusations.

Only one case had resulted in a police caution, 22 were undergoing an initial assessment by authorities and 23 were under investigation.