POPE Francis was accused yesterday of covering up the Chilean church child abuse scandal after reports he had read the allegations in 2015.

The US Associated Press (AP) agency said it had obtained an eight-page letter from Juan Carlos Cruz graphically detailing his accusations of abuse at the hands of Reverend Fernando Karadima while Bishop Juan Barros looked on.

On the last day of his trip to Chile last month — intended to restore faith in the Church in the wake of the scandal — the pontiff angered victims by calling allegations of the bishop’s complicity “calumny.”