A MAJOR police investigation is under way into allegations of child abuse at a former children's home in North Yorkshire.

Operation Courier has been running for about 12 months, with a team of officers dedicated to the investigation.

The Evening Press understands that it relates to allegations of physical and sexual assault against boys at St Camillus' community home at Scarthingwell, between Tadcaster and Sherburn-in-Elmet.

The offences are alleged to have happened in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

It is believed that more than 200 former residents have been interviewed over the past year by detectives in a painstaking inquiry.

The home, which was the responsibility of the Roman Catholic Church, is understood to have taken children from all over the North.

It closed many years ago, and after undergoing a major refurbishment and re-development is now a nursing home, with no connection to its former use as a children's home.

Detective Inspector Phil Metcalfe, senior investigating officer in Operation Courier, said: "I can confirm we are carrying out an inquiry into a children's home in North Yorkshire. I am not prepared to give any further details at this stage."

A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds, John Grady, said in a statement about St Camillus: "We are aware of the investigation taking place. We are co-operating fully with the police."

He added: "We cannot comment any further at this stage for legal reasons."

A previous and unrelated police investigation, Operation Pudsey, looked into allegations of abuse at former children's homes in Ripon and Harrogate.

It became North Yorkshire's biggest-ever probe into child abuse.

Six former members of staff who between them indecently or physically assaulted schoolboys or girls in the two homes over a 30-year period were eventually brought to justice.

The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, recently spoke of the damage caused to the Catholic Church by child abuse cases involving the church. He warned priests against "apathy" and

"negligence", saying: "We must recognise the depth and the extent of the damage done to the Church and its mission. Now we know much more and are prepared to learn, to act and to lead the way in making the Catholic Church the safest possible place for children."

Updated: 12:50 Wednesday, September 19, 2001