The Roman Catholic Bishop of Lancaster has said the church's handling of child abuse allegations has been "disastrous".

The Right Reverend Patrick O'Donoghue said more should have been done to reassure the public after recent allegations within the church.

His comments came as there were calls for Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the leader of England's Roman Catholics, to resign.

He allowed paedophile priest Michael Hill to continue working, knowing his history of abuse.

Bishop O'Donoghue said: "We did not face up to a number of issues and the way we dealt with them was not entirely satisfactory.

"But thank God things have moved on and over the past couple of weeks especially we have seen that we are at least coming to grips with the situation."

He said he believed the way the church deals with the issue now is completely different to how things were done a few years ago.