Church of England expresses 'profound shame' as review uncovers new sexual and other abuse claims in Lancashire

This brings the total of known incidents involving clergy, church officers and volunteers in the Diocese of Blackburn requiring further action to 120.

The 11 new incidents were found as part of a national past cases review ordered by Anglican church chiefs which discovered 383 more reports across 42 dioceses nationwide relating to the abuse of children and vulnerable adults requiring further attention.

The Diocese of Blackburn commissioned two former senior police detectives to review all parish records in the county and examine central files.

They found 11 cases needing further attention – nine were referred to the police for investigation, three were passed on to local authority safeguarding teams.

Six of the nine passed on for further investigation involved children and three adults.

The other two did not meet the threshold for referral to statutory authorities after further inquiries.

None of the new cases required further action by the police or councils.

The former detective chief inspectors examined 1,089 files related to allegations of suspected sexual or other abuse of children and vulnerable adults by church personnel in Lancashire.

Of those files 287 related to clergy and 174 to lay readers.

The new national Past Cases Review was ordered by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York the Most Reverend Justin Welby and the Most Reverend Stephen Cottrell after concern was expressed at a previous exercise which identified just 13 new cases requiring further action.

They expressed ‘profound shame’ at the findings of the national review which is highly critical of a culture within the Church that is portrayed as still not adequately dealing with abuse.

The acting Bishop of Blackburn and Bishop of Burnley the Rt Rev Philip North condemned past failings by the church as a ‘tragedy’.

He said: “The Diocese of Blackburn strives to be a place that is safe for all, especially for children and vulnerable adults. The Church’s failures in the past in this area have been a tragedy.

“I apologise sincerely and wholeheartedly for the pain that has been caused to so many individuals by such failures, pain which in many cases has ruined lives.

"I believe that this review and the report which has come from it will make the Diocese of Blackburn a safer place to be.”

The Diocese of Blackburn report said: “The scope of was much wider than the previous review and included adult safeguarding concerns as well as child protection concerns.

“We wrote to all parishes and incumbents to request they provide details of any safeguarding cases in their parish.

"There was a 100 per cent return and this resulted in nine new safeguarding cases, six related to children and three related to adults.

“The known case list current total at the time of review is 120.“