Archbishop of Canterbury to Review Child Abuse in Church

The Archbishop of Canterbury recently announced that the Church of England will launch a review into child abuse in the church.

Dr Rowan Williams has admitted that the Church of England's handling of sex abuse cases had been incompetent, and promised to help stamp out abuse.

The Archbishop also assured that the review would not be be carried out just to make the Church "look good".

Questioned on how he could be sure that no abusers remained in the Church, Dr Williams said there had been three "substantial" meetings in Leicestershire on the issue this week.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "What we have agreed to do is to take advice from the Cahurch's central safeguarding group, which is the child protection clearing group, on how best to conduct a review.

"We don't just want to look good and so we need to have the best professional advice on how to review these historic cases."

The Archbishop has expressed his deep sorrow after a former choirmaster was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison last month for abusing boys in his care.

David Pearson, executive director of the Church Child Protection Advisory Service, welcomed Dr Williams' statement although he said he feared that some in the Church were still not well-informed about child protection rules.