THE ARCHDIOCESE OF ARMAGH has launched a formal investigation into how a parish priest inadvertently showed pornographic images to a group of parents at a primary school last week.

Fr Martin McVeigh was setting up a PowerPoint presentation in the school last week, at a presentation to the parents of the First Communion class at a school in Co Tyrone.

It was reported that the pictures – depicting gay pornography – appeared on the screen after the priest inserted a USB key containing his presentation.

The Ulster Herald newspaper quoted Fr McVeigh as saying the images could be “legitimately explained”, but that he did not know how the images had appeared on the computer.

It added today that McVeigh did not officiate at weekend Masses for Palm Sunday, leading planned protests outside his church at Pomeroy in Co Tyrone to be abandoned.

In a statement, diocesan archbishop Sean Brady said the imagery had been “immediately removed” from the screen after it was shown, and that the priest said he had “no knowledge of the offending imagery”.

He added that the archdiocese had immediately sought the advice of local police who said that, on the basis of the evidence available at the time, no crime had been committed.

“The priest is co-operating with an investigation of the matter on the part of the Archdiocese,” Brady said.