The chilling scale of child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic church can be revealed by the Sunday Mercury today. Last week, a report published by a top level anti-abuse agency revealed that it had passed on 62 cases to police in the past year. A further 51 have been dealt with internally by the church - and nearly half of the cases involve priests. But, for the first time, the Sunday Mercury can disclose that the purge on the perverts has ensnared monks, nuns, voluntary youth workers and even ordinary members of church congregations. We can also reveal the out-come of the cases dealt with internally under the heading 'inappropriate behaviour and other concerns'. The catalogue of shame includes: * Five priests being suspended; * Twelve priests sent for psychiatric assessment to see whether they are fit to continue to work with children; * Seven priests removed from parish duties to keep them away from kids; * Two priests having to resign; * Six voluntary youth workers sacked and three risk-evaluated; * Five parishioners dealt with after they were found to have convictions for child abuse. The report was drawn up by the Birmingham-based Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults (COPCA). The figures relate to the whole of England and Wales. The office will not publicly release diocese-by-diocese figures. The body was set up three years ago by The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Birmingham, after a series of child-sex scandals engulfed the archdiocese. He vowed that there would be a hard-hitting crusade against paedophiles within the Catholic church. But despite the whirlwind nature of COPCA's probe, one Midland victim of the Father Hudson's Home scandal in the 1950s and 1960s said he believes many other victims of abuse have not yet come forward. The plight of orphans at Father Hudson's came to light when Father Eric Taylor was jailed in 1998 for seven years after a catalogue of abuse at the home in Coleshill, north Warwickshire. Boys who confided in nuns about the sex abuse were told: "Pray to God." Taylor died in prison in 2001, aged 82. The abuse victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "These complaints are undoubtedly the tip of a much larger iceberg. "COPCA's board contains no former victims of abuse at all, unlike its equivalent organisation in America. Until that happens I, and many other victims, will have no confidence in it whatsoever." | 
