The former Bishop of Arundel and Brighton has defended his decision to give a job to a priest who was later convicted of child sex offences.

After concerns were raised about Father Michael Hill, the Rt Rev Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who became Archbishop of Westminster earlier this year, moved him from his Heathfield parish to work as chaplain at Gatwick Airport Today he insisted he did not act irresponsibly by allowing the priest to continue working in 1985.

The archbishop said: "It is true to say that if the strict procedures for child protection that are now in place . . . had been in operation in 1985, then Father Hill's situation would have been handled differently.

"I maintain that with the facts then known to me, the decisions made at that time in his regard were not irresponsible."

In 1997, 63-year-old Father Hill was jailed for five years for ten sex attacks on children stretching back to 1977.

Some of the victims were as young as eight. They included a boy with learning difficulties he met while working as a chaplain at Gatwick.

The Diocese of Arundel and Brighton today issued a statement which said: "In 1983, after concerns had been raised with diocesan clergy and Bishop Murphy-O'Connor, Father Michael Hill was removed from his parish in Heathfield for professional assessment and later therapy.

"In the light of advice received following that treatment, Bishop Murphy-O'Connor withdrew Father Hill's licence to work in a parish.

"In 1985, based on the professional advice which had been given, and which had included as one option that Father Hill work in a limited pastoral capacity, he was then offered an industrial chaplaincy.

"The Diocese of Arundel and Brighton has paid compensation to certain individuals who were victims of Father Michael Hill, who was convicted in 1997 of offences relating to the abuse of young persons in the diocese.

"The diocesan trustees concluded the settlement of a compensation claim on a voluntary basis so as to save the claimants having to undergo the ordeal of giving evidence before a civil court."

Hill, who used to live at Lancing, was a chaplain at Gatwick Airport from 1985 to 1996.