A victim of paedophile Michael Ingram today told how the priest robbed him of his childhood.

The disgraced former Roman Catholic priest, pictured below, was on Monday convicted of sexual offences involving six boys, aged from nine to 12, between January 1970 and December 1978.

Ingram, who also worked as a child psychologist, social worker, and teacher, abused altar servers, church club members, and boys from deprived backgrounds while he was priest at the Holy Cross Priory Church in Leicester.

Boys were subjected to sex ordeals on a camping trip organised by the church to the Isle of Wight and weekend trips to a farmhouse, Coston Lodge, near Melton, supervised by Ingram.

After the trial, a former Leicester altar boy, described the devastating effects of the abuse.

In order to cope with what was happening to him, he blocked out all his early memories. And it was only when contacted by police investigating Ingram in 1998, that the horrific recollections came flooding back.

"I spent 20 years of my life not knowing who I was," he said. "I blocked out my childhood and I think that's one of the most serious crimes he committed against me.

"When you block out bad memories, you also block out the good ones. I always found it strange that other people would remember their childhood."

The Leicester-born victim was just 10 and serving as an altar boy in the Holy Cross Priory when the abuse began.

Ingram was today under police guard in hospital after being found guilty of the offences.

He was not in court to hear the verdicts because he was receiving treatment for ankle and knee fractures suffered in a car crash on Sunday.

Judge Richard Benson told the Leicester Crown Court jury that Ingram's car was seen by a witness to increase speed as it crossed a road and hit a wall. No brake skid marks were found.

The defendant, wearing only a T-shirt and underpants, suffered fractures to both knees and an ankle, but no life threatening injuries. He was wearing a seat belt.

Police confirmed that Ingram was involved in the one-vehicle crash on the B587 Warren Hills Road between Copt Oak and Coalville.

During the two-week trial, the jury heard how Ingram abused altar boys, under-privileged children referred to him by social services and members of a youth club.

Ingram, of Norwich Street, Cambridge, who denied the charges, was found guilty of a serious sex offence, two of gross indecency and four indecent assaults, involving six boys.

He will be sentenced at a later date.

It later emerged Ingram was previously investigated twice by different police forces during the 1990s over other claims of sex abuse on boys since 1967 - but was never prosecuted.

Earlier in his trial he had denied links with with a paedophile group which lobbied for the lowering of the age of consent.

This story was first published in the Leicester Mercury