PAEDOPHILE Nottingham priest Francis Cullen was "an arrogant man who thought he was better than others" says a former colleague.
Les Barr worked with the now 85-year-old former Hyson Green Catholic at a newspaper in Tenerife.
He said Cullen was employed to sell advertising for the fortnightly Island Connections newspaper that was sold to English speaking ex-pats and tourists on the holiday island.
But unbeknown to him his colleague was on the run from the police and the courts and had a perverted past that has now been thrust into the spotlight.
Mr Barr said the now frail pensioner, who struggled into the dock at Derby Crown Court on Monday to admit sexually abusing children over a 35-year period, used to drive around Tenerife in a motor home and was "proud that he spoke the Queen's English".
Mr Barr said: "In the time I knew Cullen he always came across as quite a quiet but arrogant man who thought he was better than he was.
"I only knew him as Paul and I never knew his surname, but that is not uncommon for Tenerife which I always think of as a place where people go to hide from their secrets.
"And it transpires that is exactly what happened in the case of Francis Cullen.
"He would say to me 'my name is Paul, but I prefer being called Raul' which is strange for someone who is Irish and, as far as I knew, had no Spanish connections at all."
Mr Barr, now 66 and who lives in Birmingham, worked with disgraced Cullen in the 1990s.
He said he left Tenerife 15 years ago to return home to the UK after working out there for five years.
Mr Barr worked in newspaper advertising and he said Cullen would come in and do "odd, part time shifts" on an ad-hoc basis.
He said: "He wasn't a very good salesman so he didn't last long but during the time I worked with him, he thought he was far better than he was.
"He would always tell me how proud he was about the way that he spoke.
"He would say to me 'I speak very correctly, I speak the Queen's English'."
At Derby Crown Court on Monday Cullen pleaded guilty to 21 counts of sexual abuse.
The offences, 15 counts of indecent assault, five of indecency with a child and one serious sexual assault, took place between 1957, when Cullen was 28, and 1991.
They involved four former altar boys from his time as parish priest of Christ the King, in Mackworth between 1960 and 1978, two with girls in Buxton and one with a boy in Nottingham.
It has also been revealed that in 1991 Cullen was arrested and charged with sexual offences against children in Nottingham.
He was bailed at Nottingham Magistrates' Court but then disappeared for 20 years, prompting questions as to how he went missing for so long.
Father Andrew Cole, the private secretary to the Bishop of Nottingham, worked alongside the police to help bring Cullen to justice.
Speaking after reading yesterdays's coverage of the case he said: "The very concept of dropping a warrant for the arrest of someone who has not only been charged with very serious sexual offences but who then breached his bail is simply beyond belief."
Fr Cole also condemned the abuse and said systems have changed and the crimes couldn't happen now.
He said: "It certainly couldn't happen now, we're much more conscious now than we were ten or 20 years ago.
"Anybody going forward for ordination goes through psychometric assessments - it wasn't done years ago.
"If we were to receive a report we would report that straight to the police."
Father Cole said the church would also be holding a safeguarding event to further raise awareness of issues, including a message from the bishop.
In 2005 Derbyshire Police received allegations of sexual offences in Mackworth and opened an investigation.
The case was opened and closed three times as avenues explored to find Cullen were met with dead ends.
In 2012 further victims came forward to Derbyshire police and a tip-off, sent to the Diocese of Nottingham from a church-goer in Derby, said Cullen was living in Tenerife.
Police successfully applied for him to be extradited from the island in August last year.
This week, following his appearance in court, he was remanded in custody while reports are prepared.
He was told by Judge Jonathan Gosling that he faces a lengthy period behind bars when he is sentenced on March 24.
Mr Barr said: "I had no idea that Cullen used to be a priest let alone one that committed these terrible crimes.
"In Tenerife people very much keep themselves to themselves.
"That's why I'm not surprised it took people so long to find him.
"You can lose yourself on the island.
"At least now he has admitted what he did all those years ago and hopefully his victims will get some kind of closure on that."
