A FORMER Catholic priest from Carnforth broke down and wept in the dock after a jury cleared him of sex offences against a cancer patient who had a leg amputated.

Alex Walker, 45, who has married since leaving the priesthood, was unanimously found not guilty on two charges of rape, and four of indecent assault by the jury of eight women and four men at Preston Crown Court.

Walker, who lives at Tarnbrook Close, admitted that his relationship with the alleged victim was inappropriate and sinful as he had broken his vow of celibacy.

But he told the jury that had he felt the relationship was against her wishes, he would have stopped it immediately.

The offences were alleged to have been committed in 1983 when the girl was 17 and a student at the Lancashire school where the defendant was chaplain.

Walker, who quit the priesthood 12 years ago and has two daughters, now campaigns against compulsory celibacy.

After the verdicts he said he was delighted at the outcome - and paid tribute to his wife Jan. "The last 15 months have been the worst nightmare imaginable and the strain on my family has been immense.

"I don't know how I would have coped without her. What this case has done to her pains me beyond measure. I feel very angry it ever came to court." Walker said that at the time he was too inexperienced as a priest to know how pastoral care could lead to romantic entanglement.

He said "Like any other young couple we thought ourselves in love though in the end I realised our relationship was not acceptable if I was to continue with my vocation to the priesthood.

"I wish my accuser no ill and hope she can now get on with her life and put the past behind her as I intend to do."

Walker also criticised the decision to prosecute.

He said "If what happened to me 17 years after the end of a relationship is to be the norm then every man in the country must live in fear that an ex-girlfriend, or indeed any woman, will emerge from the past with a tale which transforms what he thought was an innocent encounter into a horror story in which he is cast as the worst kind of devil incarnate."