Catholic monk Damon Kelly, 53, (pictured outside Leicester Magistrates' Court) is a member of a the Black Hermits. He rowed with the lesbian witches after posting a leaflet against homosexuality

A monk who told a lesbian pagan couple that they should be burned at the stake for their ‘sins’ has pleaded guilty to harassment.

Brother Damon Kelly, 53, claimed to be carrying out God’s work after he posted a note through the women’s door describing their sexuality as ‘part of the Devil’s madness’, a magistrates’ court was told.

The monk, the leader of a Roman Catholic group called the Black Hermits, first encountered the couple – who were not named in court – when he was handing out leaflets in a local park which railed against lifestyles he regarded as ‘sinful’.

He gave a leaflet to the women but when they tried to hand it back, he said: ‘Keep it, urinate on it, defecate on it.’

When they went on to defend their sexuality and pagan beliefs, an ‘aggressive and fanatical’ Kelly replied: ‘You know we used to burn people like you.’

The court heard that both parties then began quoting scripture at one another.

Within two weeks Kelly, dressed in monk’s black robes, turned up at the couple’s home in Leicester to deliver a handwritten letter addressed ‘to the witches from the monk’. In the note he attacked ‘witches, gays, lesbians and sex-changers’ as being ‘part of the Devil’s madness’.

One of the women had heart palpitations when she read the words on October 29 last year, the Leicester court heard.

Nigel Chapman, prosecuting, told the hearing that one of the women ‘felt she was being targeted by the defendant’.

Kelly, a monk at St Patrick’s Church in Corby, Northamptonshire, has taken vows of poverty and chastity, the court heard.

He believed that the women were sinners because of their sexuality and pagan beliefs, it was said.

At the time of the incident, the two women were living in Britain, only yards from the park where Kelly was leafleting. They now live in the United States.

Kelly was living in St Patrick's Church in Corby (pictured) but has reportedly been asked to leave by the bishop

One of the women was a graduate student studying ancient history and archaeology at Leicester University. The other describes herself on Facebook as a ‘freelance writer and editor’. In a note describing her work, she adds that she writes a column on ‘exploring the Pagan community’.

Kevin Sayce, defending, said: ‘It was one of the females that approached Damon Kelly and he defended his opinion – as he’s had to on numerous occasions.

‘Following their disclosures of their practice as witches, Damon Kelly returned, not to seek out a confrontation but to post the letter that put forward his beliefs on pursuing such desires and such acts.

‘His motive, his calling, is to target the sin and not the sinner.’

Sentencing was due to take place on Thursday but was adjourned until August 20 for the court to ascertain if Kelly is fit for unpaid work. Kelly, dressed in monk’s robes and sheltering himself under a multi-coloured umbrella, was released on bail with the condition not to deliver leaflets.

Last year, in a handwritten letter sent to news website Pink News and published online, Kelly wrote: ‘I wouldn’t be a good monk if I didn’t exhort you to repentance and conversion to Christ.’

He added: ‘I have no hatred for “Gays” as individuals, but as a political movement you are Antichrist and the Devil’s disciples, and the Lord has told me to oppose you.’