A PARISH website set up to give residents a forum for debating village news has been targeted by pranksters who left links to pornography sites.

Councillors in Copmanthorpe, near York, created the site a year ago to give information about the village, council news and meetings.

It included a message board, partly to encourage younger residents to get involved in village life. But the board has been closed after pornography site links were posted.

One left a web link to a site advertising "reality mature sex with older women". Another posted a link to a mysterious Russian site.

Parish council chairman Mike Irwin said he was shocked such material could have found its way on to the site.

"I don't want members of the village who are perhaps simply looking for information to be confronted with this nonsense - especially young people," he said. "If we're going to get this sort of behaviour I'm going to dismantle the whole site."

Parish council member, the Reverend Maurice Staton said: "It's extremely alarming that this can happen. Here we are trying to do a service to the community, trying to advertise what we're doing and we're running up against problems like this."