A CATHOLIC priest from Urmston has been handed an eight month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to possessing more than 3,000 indecent images of children.

Paul Clarke, 71, now of Redclyffe Road, Urmston, but formerly of Watchbell Road, Rye, East Sussex, appeared at Lewes Crown Court on Friday February 5.

He pleaded guilty to a string of offences related to indecent images of children.

He admitted possessing an indecent image of a child, possession of prohibited images and making a total of 3,100 indecent images of children.

Clarke was given an eight month prison sentence suspended for two years and will be a registered sex offender for ten years.

He was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), which will severely restrict his access to computers indefinitely.

“All the offence involved images taken from the internet,” said a Sussex Police spokesperson. “There is no evidence of contact offending and none of the images are of local children.”

Clarke was charged after an investigation by the paedophile on-line investigation team of Sussex Police (POLIT).

He was arrested after a search of his Rye address, the residential presbytery attached to St Anthony's Church, in November 2014, during which computers were seized.