Church leaders have told of their “deep regret and sorrow” over the death of an Irish-born priest who took his own life after being falsely accused of child abuse.

Father Alan Griffin, who died in November last year, spent a year under scrutiny over abuse allegations without ever hearing the claims.

In a response to a damning coroner’s report, church leaders accepted responsibility for their “poor investigation” and “what went wrong.”

The earlier, scathing coroner’s report found “no complainant, no witness, and no accuser” supported the allegations.

Dublin-born Griffin had been a Church of England clergyman before converting to Catholicism in 2012.

A probe into the allegations of child abuse was started by the Anglican diocese of London in 2019, with the claims then sent on to Catholic safeguarding authorities.

The coroner had previously concluded that the situation was made worse by the fact that Griffin, who was 78 at the…