A Roman Catholic priest who used his "revered" status to wage an 18-year campaign of abuse against vulnerable boys is facing a lengthy jail term after being convicted of 21 sexual offences.
Alexander Bede Walsh, who targeted eight victims in Coventry, Staffordshire and Warwickshire between 1975 and 1993, was found guilty of two serious sexual offences and 19 counts of indecent assault by a jury at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.
Adjourning sentence on Walsh, Judge Paul Glenn told the 58-year-old paedophile that a long prison sentence was inevitable.
The 10-day trial at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard that Walsh was arrested and interviewed in 2006 after two men contacted the police to claim they had been abused in Coventry when they were children.
The clergyman, who was ordained in 1979, told his trial that he had never sexually abused or inappropriately touched any of the alleged victims.
Under cross-examination by prosecutor Robert Price, Walsh said he thought he was the victim in the case and the complainants were motivated by the idea of compensation.