Five-year-olds ‘locked up in dark crypt’

Staff locked two five-year-old girls in a pitch-black church crypt for two hours while they took other children in their care to the cinema, a mother has told an Ofsted investigation.

The mother claims that the children went to the lavatory under St Paul’s Church in York. Staff from the church’s Out of School Club failed to carry out a headcount and locked the door to the crypt with the two pupils still inside. They only realised their mistake after the film and went back to find them.

The mother said her daughter had been traumatised by the event. Ofsted is investigating the incident.