A priest convicted of having child abuse images and extreme pornography has been expelled from the church.
In January 2025, Llandudno Magistrates Court heard Samuel Erlandson, a former Church in Wales clergyman who had worked as a chaplain at St David's College in Llandudno, had "extremely disturbing" indecent images of children aged three to eight.
Erlandson, formerly of High Street, Ruabon, admitted the two counts of making an indecent image of a child at a hearing in November 2024. He also admitted to having two images of extreme pornography at a later hearing.
He was sentenced to 32 weeks imprisonment - suspended for 18 months. He was ordered to do 160 hours of unpaid work, 15 days of rehabilitation activity and up to 26 sessions of a required programme.
Erlandson had been an ordained priest in his community and led weddings and funerals.
The Bishop of St Asaph referred Erlandson to the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Church in Wales.
The grounds for the referral were that Erlandson engaged in conduct giving just cause for scandal or offence contrary to the Constitution of the Church in Wales.
They were informed Erlandson did not intend to appear before the tribunal or offer an explanation or mitigation as to the penalty it should impose.
A judgment has now been published.
In this, Mark Powell KC, President of the Disciplinary Tribunal, stated: "We have no doubt that the facts which led to the convictions were scandalous and would, in the eyes of a person of reasonably robust persuasion, be regarded as both scandalous and offensive.
"The information before us shows that Mr Erlandson knowingly entered into a course of conduct by downloading the images and that the conduct, in the eyes of both the Church and wider society, is inherently wrong. We thus find the charge proved."
On the penalty, he added: "The Panel was unanimous that only the most serious sanctions available to the Tribunal would be appropriate in a case of this nature.
"We considered whether disqualification from holding a position in the Church in Wales without limitation of time was appropriate, but the gravity of the offending, in direct opposition to the extensive work that the Church in Wales has conducted to make safeguarding a priority and the level of outrage that right minded people would justifiably feel were he to continue to be able to hold himself out as a Priest persuade us that the only appropriate sanction that is consonant with the gravity of his offending is to order the Bishop of St Asaph to depose Mr Erlandson from Holy Orders and to expel him from the office of Cleric in the Church in Wales."