Paedophile priest in Net porn haul shock

Police have revealed that they seized the UK's largest haul of Internet-related child pornography following the conviction of a Roman Catholic priest for indecent assault.

Father Adrian McLeish last week pleaded guilty to 12 charges of abusing four boys - two aged 10, one aged 12 and one aged 18 - and was sentenced to six years in prison. McLeish was a regular correspondent with an international child porn syndicate.

He had frequently boasted of his success in the field of child abuse, giving detailed accounts of his activities across the Internet. McLeish was found to have built up a library of disks containing some 11,000 pornographic images at the presbytery of St Joseph's Church, Gilesgate, Durham, where he had been the local priest.

The case was described by the prosecutor, Beatrice Bolton, as the first to show clear links between international pornographers and use of the Net.

'It is the first time in this country that there is a proved link between pornographic communications on the Internet with other paedophiles and the sexual abuse of young children,' she said.

McLeish was connected to the Internet by four different ISPs and had links with 37 other paedophiles in Sweden, France, Germany, New Zealand and the US. One of the members of the ring, a man known only by the name Don, was found to have killed himself after he was arrested for his part in the syndicate.

McLeish first came to the attention of the authorities in 1991, when burglars told police they had found child pornography after they had broken into his home. He was described by his defence lawyer David Robson as 'a man who was alone with his thoughts and his desires'.