Police are examining sickening statements about child abuse made by a highly controversial Ukip candidate.

Carl Benjamin was formally adopted by the party as a candidate for the European elections last week despite fury over his remark that he ‘wouldn’t even rape’ a Labour MP.

Now a senior Ukip source has told The Mail on Sunday that they have passed a dossier to Wiltshire police containing deeply offensive remarks made by Mr Benjamin, an online ‘vlogger’ from Swindon who calls himself ‘Sargon of Akkad’.

The dossier includes a screenshot of a social media message in which Benjamin says he needs ‘something to really trigger’ outrage, adding: ‘Do you have any underage porn or child porn? I will delete it fast so nobody gets in trouble'

The insider says the dossier was passed to Ukip’s ruling National Executive Council last autumn but no action was taken.

It includes a YouTube broadcast in which Mr Benjamin says: ‘I can be quoted as saying you can f*** young boys. It’s actually not as controversial as you think. Depends on the child, doesn’t it? The ancient Greeks were pederasts. It was considered to be normal. It was mentoring.’

The dossier also includes a screenshot of a social media message in which Benjamin says he needs ‘something to really trigger’ outrage, adding: ‘Do you have any underage porn or child porn? I will delete it fast so nobody gets in trouble.’

The unnamed recipient responds: ‘Dude, what the f***?’

The cache of documents also includes a racist pornographic tweet Benjamin posted showing a white woman having sex with three black men, under which he wrote: ‘So this is your sister.’

Benjamin was banned from Twitter in 2017 for violating the platform’s rules on targeted abuse. Last night, when asked about the child-sex remarks, which he made in 2014, Benjamin – who is standing for the EU parliament’s South West England constituency – said: ‘It was an abstract conversation. You are a dirty, dirty smear merchant.’

Carl Benjamin was formally adopted by the party as a candidate for the European elections last week despite fury over his remark that he ‘wouldn’t even rape’ a Labour MP

He added that he believed that the age of consent should be 18.’

The source – who has been interviewed by the police about the material – said: ‘The party leadership were fully aware of this as long ago as September, and not only did nothing about it but actually allowed Benjamin to join the party and become a lead candidate. I will swear an affidavit to that effect.’

Other material studied by the police include a now-deleted 2015 video showing him repeatedly using the racial slurs ‘n****r’ and ‘sp*c’. He described two people as a ‘fag’ and a ‘retard’, and said it was ‘just f***ing fine’ to call an Asian woman a ‘ch*nk’.

Benjamin, 39, first hit the headlines in 2016 when he tweeted ‘I wouldn’t even rape you’ at MP Jess Phillips – which Ukip leader Gerard Batten labelled ‘satire’.

When confronted, Benjamin said: ‘I think we should treat women the same as men. That means if a woman is being a giant b***h and laughing at male suicide, I’m going to be a giant d**k back to her.’

Ms Phillips later responded by suggesting she would take legal action, tweeting: ‘Oh I’ve just watched the clip of Mr Benjamin telling lies on a stage about me, so I think he’ll be hearing from the lawyers. Deary me.’

A spokesman for Mr Batten did not respond to a request for comment last night.