ONE of the region's most senior churchmen has revealed an incident of crime at his home.

The Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Michael Turnbull, described yesterday how an elderly volunteer was pushed aside by a young thief at his residence, Auckland Castle, in Bishop Auckland.

The bishop stressed that he was not present when the robbery took place, but said the 89-year-old volunteer worker had been pushed aside by a youth who had made off with more than £100 in cash.

Castle manager Kim Fryer, who was there when the attack took place, on Sunday, April 7, said: "Two young men had come in and one of them had distracted other members of staff with some story that he was looking for his grandfather.

"Then he pushed our volunteer away so he could get to the cash and ran off. We were all very concerned for our volunteer but she wasn't hurt, just very angry."

Details of the incident were disclosed as police revealed that more than one in three vicars and priests who responded to their survey had been attacked while going about their work.

The bishop, speaking at a seminar organised by police on how to deal with violent situations, said: "This is a real problem and has happened at my own home.

"Often, the church is the most high profile building in some problem areas of the county and we have to try to be accommodating to people."

The seminar, held at Ushaw College, near Durham City, was attended by more than 130 priests and church wardens.

Among them was the Reverend Raymond Cuthbertson, of St John's Church, Shildon, who was attacked with a knife outside his church two years ago, but managed to wrestle the weapon away from his assailant.

He said: "I knew the man and he had mental health problems, but it came as a big shock. It was only a small knife and I eventually managed to get his arm up behind his back.

"People like priests and doctors and so on really need to become more aware of this issue."

Almost half of the priests and ministers who responded to a Durham Police questionnaire said their homes had been broken into, while more than two-thirds said their places of worship had been targeted by vandals or burglars