AID workers who abuse people in disaster areas are in the “lowest circle of hell”, Ruth Davidson said yesterday.

The Scottish Tory leader spoke out during an interview on ITV’s Peston on Sunday on the same day it emerged that Dumfriesshire-based charity The Halo Trust has suspended a worker over a sexual assault allegation.

Action was taken in January and the man, described as a “junior Burmese member of staff”, denies claims against him.

The news is another development in the sexual abuse scandal rocking the third sector and comes just days after Davidson was pictured in Halo Trust body armour during a visit to its landmine clearance work in Afghanistan.

Addressing the revelations that started the outrage – claims that Oxfam concealed the findings of a probe into allegations that its staff paid for sex while responding to the Haiti earthquake in 2011 – Davidson said: “The idea that international helpers that go to a country that’s had a terrible disaster, like Haiti, and use their position – which is to help the most vulnerable – to then exploit them is probably pretty much the lowest circle of hell that you can find.

“The idea that instead of addressing that behaviour, instead of reporting it, instead of allowing the authorities in the country to deal with it, instead of allowing victims of that behaviour to see justice being done, the idea is that ‘we will protect the reputation that we’ve built up ourselves’, I think that’s what has really hurt people at the centre of this affair.”

The Glasgow-based Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf) was the first Scottish charity to publicly disclose that it has dealt with cases of sex abuse. One involved a junior team member working for a joint organisation in Ethiopia and the other a volunteer in Burundi.

Yesterday The National’s sister paper the Sunday Herald told how 170 charities have reported concerns about their own organisations to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator in the last two years. Most related to financial matters, but 15 had an element of alleged sexual misconduct.

Last week Sciaf director Alistair Dutton told The National a new register should be established to allow groups in the third sector to share information about staff or volunteers who have been investigated over such claims. He said: “We’re reliant on references and word of mouth, and obviously that’s only as good as the people who provide them.”

Yesterday Oxfam director Mark Goldring said his charity must “win back” public trust, stating: “We are sorry for the mistakes we have made. We should have been more open with the public about the fact that staff in Haiti were fired for sexual abuse. And we should have expanded our safeguarding team faster.”

The Charity Commission of England and Wales said it had experienced “increased reporting” from the sector and would set up a new taskforce to look at safeguarding incidents.

Meanwhile, Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered MP Jo Cox, has stepped down from his role at the foundation established in her name and the charity More in Common in light of sexual assault allegations from his past.

He admitted “inappropriate” conduct while working at Save the Children in 2015 but said claims he assaulted a woman during a trip to Harvard University in the US were a “massive exaggeration”.

Oxfam has agreed to not to bid for government funding for its overseas work until it can meet the “high standards” of the the Department for International Development.

The UK spends 0.7 per cent of national income on overseas aid but critics claim this is excessive. Yesterday Davidson said supporters now have “a bigger job to do” to defend the spending, stating: “What Oxfam has done has just made that job 100 per cent harder.”