A ROMAN Catholic priest was facing jail last night after he admitted sexually abusing 18 boys over a period of 12 years.

Noel Barrett, now 61 and retired, admitted 31 charges of indecent assault on boys aged nine to 13 while he was at churches in Middlesbrough, Hull and in Ireland, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Silver-haired Barrett, who became a priest at 28, pleaded guilty to 15 indecent assaults on two boys, aged between nine and 11, from April 1973 to September 1976 when he was at St Joseph's Church in Marton Road, Middlesbrough.

Christine Egerton, prosecuting, told the court that 11 of the charges related to one boy and involved touching him inappropriately.

Barrett asked for another 16 indecent assaults to be taken into consideration, on different boys in Middlesbrough, Hull, County Kerry, Stradbally and Dublin, between 1971 and 1983.

Last night, it emerged that Barrett had also worked at the same church hospital as paedophile priest Anton Mowat - the now closed St Cuthbert's Hospital, run by St John of God, at Hurworth, near Darlington.

Mowat - in one of the highest profile sex abuse scandals to hit the Catholic church - was arrested in 1990 after an international search involving the FBI and stood trial for molesting altar boys.

Barrett also worked at the St John of God Hospital in Scorton, North Yorkshire.

Barrett, now living at Lawrence Street, York, spoke his guilty pleas in a soft Irish accent.

One boy's weeping mother had to be comforted in court by a female relative as the charges were read.

Barrett was a supply priest in the Middlesbrough Diocese and in the Richmond area, and was appointed to Our Lady's in Acomb, York, in 1982.

In 1983, he became a supply priest in Guisborough, then St Pius Church in Park End, Middlesbrough, St Mary's Church, Filey, St Patrick's Church in Marsh Street, Middlesbrough, and later moved to a convent in Whitby, North Yorkshire.

Andrew Semple, for Barrett, told Judge Les Spittle: "This is clearly a catalogue of serious offending.

"He did seek psychological assistance in the 1980s which did lead to the end of what can only be described as an obsession.

"Funding has now been granted for a psychological report which is now awaited. That may take as long as six weeks."

Barrett appeared in the dock open-necked in a black clerical jacket and left court with a male companion who was similarly dressed.

He was remanded on unconditional bail for six weeks for the preparation of a pre-sentence report by a probation officer.

Father Derek Turnham, a spokesman for the Middlesbrough Roman Catholic diocese, said they were aware of the case, but would be making no comment until sentence was passed.

The Roman Catholic church has been rocked by a number of child abuse scandals in recent years and introduced new guidelines in the mid 1990s in a bid to weed out paedophile priests.

Each diocese now has a specific priest responsible for child protection, who reports to a national management team, and vetting procedures have also been tightened up to prevent abusers from slipping through the net.