Priests were victims of sex abuse

Seven per cent of Catholic priests have suffered child sex abuse as boys and one-third of sex abusing clergy are paedophiles, a conference was told yesterday. Terence McCarthaigh said that at least two priests within the Roman Catholic diocese of Clifton in the west of England, where he runs a church child protection team, had disclosed they were sexually abused as children. The diocese has appointed a child protection officer and drawn up guidelines and policies to tackle the issue. However, he told the British Association For The Study and Prevention of Child Sex Abuse and Neglect's conference in Edinburgh that abuse is more widespread.

"When a priest stands up on a Sunday and speaks to a congregation of 300 adults, around 47 of those adults will have experienced some sort of child sex abuse. We don't know how many priests are sex abusers. Of priests who sexually abuse, around a third of them are paedophiles," he said.