The Danish Tømmerup Church, in Kalundborg, where a priest who worked there is charged with having sex with a dozen children
The Danish Tømmerup Church, in Kalundborg, where a priest who worked there is charged with having sex with a dozen children Google Maps

A 47-year-old Danish priest filmed his sex sessions with a teenage boy after meeting him on a gay dating site.

Holbæk Court heard that the former clergyman, who has not been named, made several videos of himself having sex with the 16-year-old boy who he met on boyfriend.dk.

More from IBTimes UK

"If we were to make a proper film at some point, we had to practice," the ex-priest told the court in north-eastern Denmark on Tuesday (3 September).

The former priest at the Tømmerup Church, in the city of Kalundborg, is accused of sexual misconduct with a dozen children between the ages of 12 and 17 years over a five-year period ending in 2011.

The priest pretended to work for the army when he began speaking to the boy on the dating site, according to Danish news agency Ritzau.

The age of consent in Denmark is 15, but it is illegal to distribute pornography of people under the age of 18. It is legal to possess pornography of people over the age of 15 if they have given consent.

Recordings of the pair having sex were shown during a closed court session, which the priest refused to attend. But later the former clergyman said: "He knows that these films were just for fun and not for distribution."

The 47-year-old also added that their sexual relationship was consensual. "I know him very well and if he had not wanted to continue, he would have said. It was for his and my pleasure," he told the court.

The priest paid for the teenager to travel from his home in Jutland, north Denmark, to his clergy house attached to the church.

He also gave the teenager money to buy drugs in Copenhagen's Christiania 'freetown' district, the judge was told.

The relationship between the pair continued until the youth was in his early twenties, but remained consensual throughout, the former clergyman said,

The ex-priest is on trial for 30 different charges after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced at the church last year. The trial is expected to last until November.