Church of England bishops have been instructed to give partial apologies to victims of child sex abuse by clergy, to help minimise the cost of being sued. Confidential legal advice to bishops seen by The Telegraph said that the furthest the bishops should go was to ‘express regret’. It warns bishops to be careful before meeting victims, and not to do so without first talking to a lawyer. It warns of the ‘unintended effect of accepting legal liability’ for sex abuse and ‘inadvertently’ conceding guilt. The advice was issued in 2007 and replaced last year. The latest revelation comes after a review earlier this year found that at least three clergy, subsequently made bishops in the Church of England, failed to act over credible claims of sadistic sexual abuse disclosed repeatedly by a survivor over forty years.