More than 1,200 US priests accused of abuse

MORE THAN 1,200 priests in nearly every diocese in America have been accused of sexually abusing children since the Roman Catholic Church in the US became embroiled in a sex abuse scandal a year ago.

A survey conducted by the New York Times found that 4,268 people have claimed publicly or in lawsuits that priests abused them in the past six decades.

The survey, relying on court records, news reports, church documents and interviews, found that 1,205 priests, or 1.8% of all priests ordained from 1950 to 2001, had been accused of abuse. Most of the priests accused of abuse were ordained between the mid-1950s and the 1970s, while the alleged abuse occurred primarily in the 1970s and the 1980s, the newspaper reported. Some allegations date to the 1930s.