A bombshell report will tomorrow reveal that more than 3,000 paedophiles have operated in the French Catholic Church over the last 70 years.

On the eve of the publication of a 2,500-page dossier on the findings of a four-year inquiry into clerical abuse, Jean-Marc Sauvé (pictured), the chief of the investigating commission said the numbers of possible abusers was huge.

The inquiry, he told Le Monde newspaper and APF, had uncovered evidence of between 2,900 and 3,200 abusers hidden among 115,000 priests.