A vicar told yesterday how she was "gob-smacked" to discover her teenage daughter's bad language had been raised at a parish council meeting.

The Reverend Di Halliday - priest-in-charge at Cullingworth's St John the Evangelist Church - apologised after an outburst by her daughter Verity, 16, shocked a local councillor.

The Reverend Halliday, of Halifax Road, Cullingworth, said news of Verity's verbal volley at some teenage youths outside the vicarage had come as a complete surprise.

The matter was highlighted at a recent meeting of Cullingworth parish council when the minutes were amended to read that: "the bad language was not from youths but the vicar's daughter. Coun Wadsworth dealt with the incident and there has been no recurrence."

A witness to the incident, who asked not to be named, said Verity had seen some youths from her bedroom window who were shouting to her.

The witness said: "She came rushing down and chased them off. She shot out with most foul language, effing and blinding - we were absolutely shocked. It was just not on - especially when you think it's the vicar's daughter."

Mrs Halliday, priest-in-charge of St John the Evangelist, Cullingworth, said: "If her behaviour takes away from my credibility, I shall be very sorry. I am absolutely gob-smacked and will investigate. I hope that it will serve as a shock to her that people have registered their upset. I am grateful to Malcolm Wadsworth, a former church warden, for his tactful intervention and dealing with the incident."

She was surprised that the council should have seen fit to publicly identify her daughter. "It would be interesting to know who put the knife in. I wonder if I had gone to the meeting, would it have been brought up? The minutes could have been amended to say the abuse had been said by an unnamed person. I wonder why?

"I shall be writing to Coun John Brigg, chairman of the council, to ask why she was identified. I think to have identified a youngster like this is wrong, especially when they could have spoken to me about it."

Coun Brigg was unavailable for comment and Coun Wadsworth declined to comment.

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