Child abuse has gone unchecked in the Church of England for decades amid a cover up by bishops, secret papers have revealed.Information that could have prevented abuse has been "lost or damaged", concerns about individuals have been ignored and allegations have not been recorded.
It means the Church has no idea how many paedophiles are in its midst.
Lawyers have warned the Church faces a crisis as catastrophic as the one that engulfed the Roman Catholic Church and cost it millions of pounds in damages.
Richard Scorer, a solicitor who has specialised in child abuse cases, said the Church of England's mistakes amounted to "an appalling, shocking level of negligence" likely to leave it open to claims from victims who have been too afraid to speak out in the past.
The Church is to launch an urgent investigation on an unprecedented scale.
Expose
It will look at the records of thousands of clergy - including those who have retired - church employees, lay workers and volunteers dating back decades in an attempt to expose those who have previously escaped prosecution and identify those who pose "current risks".
Dioceses will appoint independent reviewers with access to all of their personnel files.
However, the internal Church documents show even if churchwardens are found to have previous allegations against them, the Church has no power to suspend them.
Bishops have called for the review following two high-profile cases last spring.
One of the documents, compiled by the Church's Central Safeguarding Liaison Group, concedes "most serious concerns will have been known by the senior staff at the time".
The Church has been guilty of systemic failures on a large scale, according to the document.
"Some records may have been lost or damaged," it says, adding warnings from psychologists might also have been ignored.
The liaison group was asked to draw up a review policy by the House of Bishops, which discussed the plans at its meeting earlier this month.
Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was at the meeting, has backed the need for a comprehensive review following the two child abuse cases.
"Every parish has got to have a child protection policy and it needs to work properly," he said.
The liaison group is chaired by the Right Reverend Anthony Priddis, the Bishop of Hereford, and includes the Reverend Pearl Luxon, the Church's child protection adviser, as well as other clergy with experience in legal, social and probation work.
The bishops agree "there may well be gaps in the Church's collective memory" that have allowed sex offenders to go unpunished.
While the Catholic Church has been hit by dozens of sex abuse cases, the Church of England had been relatively unaffected until spring this year. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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