Alexander Bede Walsh was convicted last month of 21 sexual offences (Staffordshire Police)
Alexander Bede Walsh was convicted last month of 21 sexual offences (Staffordshire Police)

Former Roman Catholic priest Alexander Bede Walsh has been sentenced to 22 years for sexually abusing eight young boys for two decades.

Walsh, 58, of Church Lane, Abbots Bromley, carried out the attacks against boys aged between eight and 16 while working at children's homes and churches in Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Coventry between the 1975 and 1993.

Walsh 21 sexual offences after a 10-day-trail at Stoke on Trent Crown Court in February.

He was arrested in 2006 after two men from Coventry contacted the police to say they had been abused by Walsh. Further complaints from other victims arrived between 2088 and 2011.

The court heard how Walsh already had a previous conviction for possessing indecent images of children.

After Walsh's conviction, Staffordshire Police Detective Constable Tim Bailey said: "He is supposed to be a man of the cloth but he has shown no compassion, no integrity and no humanity.

"He has forced grown men to come to court and relive childhood experiences of sexual abuse".

A jury cleared Walsh of six other charges.