Former Archbishop of York 'did not report' sexual abuse claims 10 May 2013 Last updated at 03:01 Sexual abuse complaints against a Church of England cleric were not referred to police by then Archbishop of York, David Hope, it has emerged. The Times said the now Lord Hope was made aware of the allegations against the former Dean of Manchester, Robert Waddington, in 1999 and again in 2003. It involved an Australian school pupil and a Manchester Cathedral choirboy. Lord Hope insisted he acted strictly in line with child protection policy in force in the Church at the time. Banned as priest Allegations were put to Lord Hope in 1999 that Mr Waddington had abused a pupil several decades earlier at a school in Queensland where he was head teacher. Then in 2003, a former choirboy at Manchester Cathedral claimed he had been abused by Mr Waddington during the 1980s. Mr Waddington, who died in 2007, denied the allegations. Lord Hope banned Mr Waddington from acting as a priest but in neither case did he, nor the diocese, inform the police. However, Lord Hope said that Church guidelines written in 1999 specified that there was no automatic duty to refer allegations to the police. Fragile and frail He said he was satisfied that Mr Waddington was by then too ill anyway to pose a threat to children. Lord Hope told the Times: "I didn't report to the police. With hindsight, probably there ought to have been [a report]. He was in such a fragile and frail state. Greater Manchester Police said it was concerned that the diocese had decided not to report the claims to police while Mr Waddington was still alive. BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott said the danger for the Church was that the allegations could suggest a culture seeking to protect clergy from scandal. This comes after it was revealed that clergy accused of sexual abuse in the Chichester diocese were not dealt with effectively.