THE ROMAN Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff says paedophile former priest John Lloyd should not be considered for early release from prison.

Archbishop Peter Smith said today that John Lloyd, who used to be a priest at St Mary's Catholic Church in Bulwark Road, Chepstow, should not be released before he had served his time.

There are reports that Lloyd, a priest in the archdiocese of Cardiff at the time of his offences, may be considered for parole in December.

Lloyd was jailed for eight years in 1998. He had been convicted of sexually abusing two altar boys and a 23-year-old woman and raping a 16-year-old girl. But today, the Archbishop said: "Given what he did I don't think he should be released early.

"I have been told he hasn't co-operated with treatment so I don't think it will be likely he will get parole. No-one in the Catholic community will try and defend what he did. I'm horrified by what he did."

He added that he did not think people in the Catholic community would be happy about any possible parole.

Chepstow resident, Kim Thomas, 44, of Western Avenue, said it is "disgusting" that Lloyd may be considered for parole.

She said: "The poor families involved and the victims must be terrified of the day he comes out. But to come out early after the crimes he committed is awful. I'm a mother of three children and that's my greatest fear - paedophilia. He should serve his whole sentence."

Councillor John Huntley, of Somerset Way, Bulwark, who appointed Lloyd to be his chaplain when he was chairman of Gwent county council in 1992, said: "I think people will respond to it.

"I don't think they will be pleased. If he is paroled, I don't think he would come back to Chepstow."

Pope John Paul II dismissed Lloyd from the clergy a year after his sentence.

Lloyd's conviction and that of Father Joe Jordan in 2000 for sexually abusing two nine-year-old boys, rocked the Catholic Church in Wales to its foundations.