A CHURCH organist was told to keep quiet after he said he discovered gay pornography – including possible images of children – on the computer of a church official, a tribunal has heard.

Andrew McGarva had been asked to fix the church official's computer when he found the images, some of which he claimed showed “young people underage” and sadistic scenes.

The musician, a former organist at St Columba’s Parish Church in Largs, also claimed one of the images showed a “rape in the back of a taxi”.

Mr McGarva informed church elders about the images in 2007, but claims he was told his position as organist would be “untenable” if word got out about what he had found.

The church disputed it was told at the time that pictures of children were involved.

The issue was investigated by police only in 2011 when he raised it again and word was passed to the Church of Scotland’s Safeguarding Service.

Police took no further action over the allegations.

The full details of the alleged discovery were revealed in an employment tribunal raised by Mr McGarva against the Kirk Session of Largs.

He was seeking a claim for constructive dismissal over the way the church dealt with the pornography claims, as well as a number of other matters.

Employment Judge Lucy Wiseman found that the church had breached his contract, but ultimately ruled that he was not constructively dismissed. He had stayed in his job in spite of the breach and the complaint he made later had been handled correctly.

A written judgment on the case states: “Mr McGarva explained... that he had been asked by a former member of the congregation, in April, 2007, to repair his computer.

“He discovered a large number of ‘gay pornographic images’ stored on the computer. Mr McGarva took advice from the Metropolitan Police Child Protection Unit and was advised that as the vast majority of the images were not illegal, it was unlikely there would be a prosecution.”

The document adds that he told the church’s John Lewis about the images and provided him with copies, however he claimed Mr Lewis “took no action” and told him “he should not tell anyone about the matter”.

The issue was raised again in 2011 and this time he was told to inform the police, which he did, and no further action was taken at that time.

After a string of issues within the church – including him being stopped from conducting private lessons there – Mr McGarva went on to raise a grievance with his bosses in December, 2014.

The judgment states: “The claimant in the grievance raised the issue of the pornographic images and suggested that he had been told by Mr Lewis that his job would be ‘untenable’ if the story got out into the public domain.

“The claimant believed this had been said to prevent his from taking further action on the matter, although that belief was difficult to accept in circumstances where the claimant had an opportunity to provide information to the police regarding this matter.”

The grievance was passed to the church’s safeguarding unit and reported to the police again in December, 2014.

The police re-investigated, and again decided no further action should be taken.

A Church of Scotland spokesman said: “During the course of the grievance process, a number of unsubstantiated allegations were made which have been consistently refuted and remain unproven despite repeated investigation.”

Mr Lewis has consistently denied putting any pressure on the complainant to suppress information.