An Irish priest sexually abused nine young girls over four decades, a UK court has heard.

Many of the schoolchildren were said not to have complained about Father Mortimer Stanley, 84, at the time, because of the "very high regard" he was held in by parishioners and teachers.

The priest allegedly targeted the complainants in his presbytery at St Vincent de Paul RC Church in Norden, Rochdale, where he would sit them on his knee and indecently assault them in various ways.

His alleged victims, aged under 11, were either pupils at the adjacent St Vincent's RC Primary School or members of the parish.

A tenth, male, complainant says he too was sexually abused as a child by the canon after he claimed something "like chloroform" was put over his mouth and he collapsed.

Limerick-born Father Stanley, now living in Ballybunion, Co Kerry, denies 19 counts of indecent assault said to have been committed between 1977 and 2002.

A jury at Manchester Minshull Street Court heard he retired in 2002 and returned to Ireland shortly after the mother of one of the female complainants informed teaching staff that the canon had inappropriately kissed her daughter.

The court was also told she wrote to Fr Stanley before he left the UK to raise her concerns, and he replied that he was "sorry for the upset he had caused".

Opening the prosecution case, Andrew Mackintosh said: "The female complainants were termed the defendant's 'special girls' - girls who he would take out of school and to the presbytery, and there he abused them.

"They will tell you that he would sit them on his knee, abuse them and use them in various manners."

Father Stanley moved into the Norden presbytery in 1977 when he was sent to the Salford Diocese, and also became a school governor.

Mr Mackintosh said: "He was someone who you will hear was held in very high regard by his parishioners and by the teachers, and also by many of the pupils at the school.

"He was described by one of his pupils as 'a godlike figure, a celebrity in the playground'. Someone who children would run to and give a hug.

"It is the Crown's case that his reputation and his relationship with those children masked what was abuse."

The trial continues.