Wirral Child Porn Vicar Is Kicked out of Church of England
By Craig Manning
A WIRRAL vicar jailed after he was caught downloading images and videos of child sex abuse has been kicked out of the Church Of England. Rev Ian Hughes was jailed for 12 months in January after pleading guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to 15 charges of making indecent images and movies, one of possessing 8,227 indecent images and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image. He has since been released from prison. His secret double life was revealed during Merseyside police investigations into internet users exchanging indecent images of children by peer-to-peer file sharing software. His internet address was linked to a large quantity of such images and police raided his home at the vicarage in Brougham Road, Wallasey, last year. They seized his three computers and subsequent examination revealed more than 8,000 indecent images in all categories of seriousness. He has resigned from the ministry and been banned from any exercise of ordained ministry for 20 years. Hughes, 46, was Priest-in-Charge of St Paul’s in Seacombe and St Luke’s in Poulton. After his arrest on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children he was suspended. A spokesman for the Church of England 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 (2013). "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.”
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