On the eve of Pope Benedict's visit to Britain, victims of child abuse at the hands of Catholic priests have demanded that the pontiff hand over all information on paedophile clergy to authorities.

The Pope's arrival in the UK later today marks the first official state visit for a pontiff in British history.

He is set to fly into Edinburgh to meet the Queen at Holyrood Palace before heading to Glasgow for a celebration mass, although ticket sales of 64,000 seats are well down on what the church was expecting.

But the visit is already being overshadowed by controversy.

Adults who were either sexually assaulted or beaten by Roman Catholic priests and nuns when young held a press conference in London calling on the Vatican to open up its secret files on abusers to the police.

Sue Cox from England calls herself a recovered Catholic. She was abused by a priest who lived with her family.

"That day was the day before my confirmation," she said.

"Now, confirmation in the Catholic Church is the day that the Holy Spirit gives you lots of gifts, one of them being fear of God. I got an extra one."

Later, she was attacked again, by the same priest.

"In my home, in my bedroom, with my family downstairs," she said.

"He was fat and smelly and he stank of stale sweat and whisky and incense. And I was asthmatic, I was breathing, I was gasping for breath.

"I was bleeding, I was crying, my nightie was torn from top to bottom and he was laughing."

Australian victim

Sydney's Mark Fabbro travelled to London to help draw attention to the plight of sex abuse victims.

He was raped by a Jesuit priest in Melbourne and has been seeking justice from the church for the past 14 years.

"Pope Benedict came to Sydney two years ago in 2008, with a cost to the taxpayers in Australia of more than $130 million," he said.

"During that visit he said, quote, 'Victims should receive compassion and care and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice.'

"Now nothing has been done in Australia."

At the press conference, the victims of abuse were informed of a Channel Four News investigation that has found more than half of the Catholic clergy jailed for paedophile activity in England and Wales remain in the priesthood.

Mr Fabbro says Australia hides similar secrets.

"According to the news reports in Australia, dozens and dozens of priests known to the church authorities to have sexually assaulted children remain in the church," he said.

Papal petition

Meanwhile, more than 50 public figures in Britain have added their names to a letter criticising the British government's decision to honour the Pope with the state visit.

Authors Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman are among a cast of popular British names critical of the Vatican's position on contraception, gay rights, abortion and paedophile priests.

Actor Stephen Fry has also signed the petition, dismissing the Vatican's claim to be an independent state.

"You can't be part of an autocratic kingdom on Earth like the Catholic place is and claim to be a spiritual leader and expect the British taxpayer to foot the bill for your visit, I mean it's just not right," he said.

The letter goes on to say that the Vatican has also resisted signing many major human rights treaties and has formed its own treaties with states which "negatively affect the human rights of citizens of those states".

'Third World'

In another controversy, a senior papal adviser has pulled out of the UK trip due to illness, only days after comparing England to a Third World country.

Cardinal Walter Kaspar made remarks to German news magazine Focus in an interview published at the weekend.

"England today is a secularised and pluralist country. When you land at Heathrow airport, you sometimes think you've landed in a Third World country," he was quoted as saying.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the cardinal's comments should not be seen as negative and they referred to the broad mixture of people of many different origins living in a metropolis such as London.

"A cosmopolitan reality, a melting pot of contemporary humanity, with its diversity and its problems," he said in an emailed statement.

He said Cardinal Kaspar was not going on the trip because he had been quite sick for most of the summer and his doctors had advised him not to travel.