The Catholic church has denied that a priest suspected of abusing a girl in Sussex has disappeared from a monastery in Italy.

Father Christopher Maxwell-Stewart faced allegations that he abused a young girl in Chichester in the Nineties.

The charges were later dropped but he was labelled as unsuitable to work with children, sent to a convent in Kent and was expected to be placed in a monastic community.

It was reported in The Times today that Father Maxwell-Stewart had been sent to a monastery in Italy two weeks ago to keep a low profile but had since disappeared.

But a spokesman for the Catholic church told us this morning that Father Maxwell-Stewart had not disappeared.

He said: "I can tell you that he was out of the country but he will be meeting the Bishop at the end of the week.

"I believe he did go to Italy and he's not back yet but he has not disappeared."

Father Maxwell-Stewart is named on a dossier of up to 12 priests suspected of abusing children, which is being examined by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.

The Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, the Right Reverend Kieran Conry, told us last week: "Father Maxwell-Stewart is coming back to the diocese.

"He will be placed in a monastic community in an isolated spot. He will not say public Mass or work with young people.

"We have sufficient reservations that he should not be allowed back to a parish. This will be for the foreseeable future until his future is decided.

"If he remains a priest he might remain in the capacity of an academic. We need to talk to him to see what he wants to do."

He said the priest, in his late 40s, had not worked with children recently.

After the charges were dropped, Fr Maxwell-Stewart spent a year in the US undergoing assessment and therapy. Since then he has been at St Joseph's Convent in Deal, Kent.

Cardinal Murphy O'Connor has faced widespread criticism over his handling of paedophile priests.

This centred on his decision in 1985 - when he was Bishop of Arundel and Brighton - to move now-jailed Father Michael Hill, 68, to the chaplaincy at Gatwick despite knowing he was a paedophile.