An inquiry being carried out by the Archdiocese of Armagh into how gay pornographic images were “inadvertently” shown by a priest to a group of parents and one child has apparently been derailed after the laptop at the centre of the matter was stolen from the priest’s house.

The computer is believed to have been the only item stolen and the PSNI has made a public appeal to help solve the crime.

On March 26th a number of gay images were shown during a slideshow about children’s First Confession. The priest said he had no idea where the images came from and the memory stick on which they were placed was used by a number of people.

The images, which caused concern to those present, were immediately removed from the screen. There is no suggestion they were of minors and no suggestion they were illegal.

However, an internal inquiry was established by the archdiocese to establish how the images came to be shown on the laptop. That inquiry has now been thrown into doubt.