DETECTIVES are investigating the former Archbishop of York for failing to alert authorities to allegations that a cathedral dean was a paedophile.

North Yorkshire Police has been investigating the inaction of Lord Hope of Thornes, while he served as the second highest ranking bishop of the church for a decade until being succeeded by Dr John Sentamu in 2005.

The inquiry is believed to be part of Operation Hydrant, which was set up in 2014 to deliver the national policing response to historic child abuse investigations concerning people of public prominence, or offences which took place within institutional settings.

The force is understood to have spent several months examining the 76-year-old's handling of the case of Rev Robert Waddington, who was once the Church's head of education and a former dean of Manchester.

It is believed detectives have being working with the Crown Prosecution Service over how to proceed with the case and that Lord Hope could be charged with misconduct in a public office, the same charge that saw the former Bishop of Gloucester, Peter Ball, jailed after admitting sex offences.

Lord Hope resigned from ministry in 2014, after almost 50 years, as an independent inquiry found "systemic failures" in bringing Rev Waddington - who abused choirboys and school pupils in York, Manchester, London, Carlisle and Australia, over five decades - to justice.

It also found Rev Waddington had access to York Minster chorister's locker room until at least 1999, the year allegations about the child abuse were first brought to Lord Hope's attention.

The inquiry, chaired by Judge Sally Cahill QC, found Lord Hope, who dealt with two of the cases, revoked Rev Waddington's right to conduct services, but did not refer the accusations to police or child protection agencies.

She said Lord Hope's inaction meant "opportunities were missed" to prosecute Rev Waddington before his death in 2007 and that he was guilty of cumulative failings, such as holding personal meetings with the paedophile.

At the time The Archbishop of Canterbury and former Bishop of Durham The Most Rev Justin Welby told how he broke down in tears at learning of the horror of child abuse within the Church of England.

A police spokesman said: "The investigation is at an early stage and at this point in time it has not been determined whether any criminal offence has been committed."