Calls for clergy sex-crime review

The Church needs to be confident there are no "issues"

A leading bishop has ordered an independent investigation into the files of 850 members of the clergy following recent child abuse cases.

Bishop of Manchester Rev Nigel McCulloch will appoint a lawyer to make sure none of the files contain outstanding child protection issues.

It comes after ex-reverend David Smith was jailed for grooming and abusing six children over a 30-year period.

Smith committed the crimes after concerns about him "were dealt with".

Complaints had been made with the Church of England on two occasions about the vicar, firstly in 1983 and again in 2001.

Smith, 52, of St John's Road, Clevedon, North Somerset, was jailed for five-and-a-half-years earlier this month.

It was the second abuse scandal to hit the Church in a week, after former choirmaster Peter Halliday, 61, was jailed for two-and-a-half years for sexually abusing boys in Hampshire in the late 1980s, amid claims the Church had "covered up" his crimes.

'Shocked and devastated'

The Churches Child Protection Advisory Service, an independent Christian charity, has warned another sex offender could slip through the net unless the Anglican Church "learnt lessons" from their mistakes.

Rev McCulloch said: "Recent cases have shocked people and the effects of such abuse are devastating to the victims.

"Using our strict child protection procedures, I am instructing a review of clergy files so we can be confident that there are no child protection issues outstanding in this diocese."

The eight-week process will be completed by 1 August.

The Diocese of Manchester is the Church of England in Bolton, Bury, Leigh, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Rossendale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Trafford.