A FORMER priest accused of abusing two boys told a court he was too fat to be sexually active.

Christopher Howarth, who is also an ex-deputy school principal, is standing trial accused of 19 counts of abusing two young boys between 2005 and 2011.

Taking the stand, the 67-year-old denied the offences telling jurors he had not been sexually active since the mid-1990s because of his weight.

Hove Crown Court was also told Mr Howarth had deleted a number of files from his computer.

Under cross examination, he said the files were about his finances and parishioners – not evidence of abuse.

Jurors were told the former Uckfield Community College deputy headteacher used special programmes to remove evidence of files from a school laptop due to be passed on to other teachers.

He said: “I had things like my finances in there ... lots of details of people and cases I was dealing with in the parish.

“I went to speak to the technicians and they said delete them anyway and there is a programme called EE.”

He added that he later installed a second file-cleaning programme because the first became corrupted.

Mr Howarth, of Rock Park Road, Uckfield, denies 19 counts of sexual offences against two young boys between 2005 and 2011, including sexual activity with a child and causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

Mr Howarth said he believed the allegations were motivated by financial gain.

The 67-year-old, who was a lay priest at St Michael’s in Little Horsted, Holy Cross in Uckfield and St Margaret’s in Ifield, told jurors he was in “total, utter shock” when he was arrested by police a fortnight after being suspended as a priest in December 2012.

He said during one incident in which he is accused of sexually abusing one of the boys, he was carrying out a therapeutic role-playing exercise recommended by a specialist in the 1970s.

Asked why he had given the boys gifts and cash, Mr Howarth told the court he and his wife wanted to “share something of the good life that we have had”.

He added: “Ever since I have been ordained I have on Christmas Day dressed as Santa and used to visit families in the parish.

“I would take a bag full of family presents which I would give out to the children.”

The trial continues.