Thirty members of the Church of England clergy face being sacked over their failure to stop the most prolific child abuser in the institution’s history. The Church’s national safeguarding team is examining the actions of at least 30 officials named in a report as having prior knowledge of allegations against John Smyth.

The Church of England faced pressure on Wednesday to ensure people are held to account for systematically covering up allegations of abuse, one day after the Archbishop of Canterbury resigned over a church abuse scandal.

A report found Justin Welby took insufficient action into allegations against John Smyth, believed to be “the most prolific serial abuser” associated with the Church of England.