Disgraced Wirral vicar given Church ban after serving time for possessing indecent images of children, by Joe Thomas, Liverpool Echo (October 19, 2014)

Disgraced Wirral vicar given Church ban after serving time for possessing indecent images of children

By Joe Thomas
Liverpool Echo
October 19, 2014

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/disgraced-wirral-vicar-given-church-7961623

Rev Ian Hughes admitted 16 counts relating to more than 8,000 images and movies and was jailed for 12 months

Rev Ian Hughes was jailed for a year in January after being found in possession of more than 8,000 indecent images and video

A disgraced Merseyside vicar jailed after being found in possession of more than 8,000 indecent images and video of children has been kicked out of the Church of England.

Reverend Ian Hughes was sentenced to 12 months behind bars in January for his illicit cache of pornographic material after police raided his vicarage in Wallasey.

While the vicar - known for his nose piercing - has now been released from prison his former employers have formally banned him following their own investigation.

Rev Hughes was priest in charge of the Wirral parishes Poulton and Seacombe when his home on Brougham Road, Wallasey, was searched in May 2013.

Officers discovered thousands of indecent images and videos of children in the raid, including dozens classed as category five, the most serious.

Then 46, Rev Hughes admitted 16 counts relating to more than 8,000 images and movies when he appeared at Liverpool crown court in January, as well as possession of an extreme pornographic image involving an animal that was “grossly offensive and disgusting”.

Following his arrest on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, he was suspended by the Church of England and Park Primary School, where he was a governor.

But a Church of England investigation could only begin after criminal proceedings finished, with the religious organisation concluding their inquiry this month.

As a result Hughes, who was unable to return to his Church property on his release, has been banned from “any exercise of ordained ministry” for 20 years.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Chester said: “Ian Hughes has served his punishment and been released from prison. He resigned from priestly ministry in the Church of England Diocese of Chester at the time of his conviction last year. He no longer lives in church property.

“If he takes part in church life in any other way in the future he will be subject to the diocese’s stringent safeguarding procedures.

“Ian Hughes has been formally banned from any exercise of ordained ministry for 20 years with immediate effect.”

In recent years Hughes won a £270,000 Heritage Lottery grant to rebuild the spire at St Paul’s and oversaw the move of the congregation of St Luke’s in Poulton to Park Primary after the church building closed.