A former Roman Catholic priest has been jailed for 18 years after being found guilty of sexually abusing boys in the 1970s and 80s.

Laurence Soper, 74, has been on the run after jumping bail before finally being discovered in Kosovo after an international warrant for his arrest was released.

He was convicted earlier this month of 19 charges of rape and other sexual offences against 10 boys at St Benedict's school in Ealing, west London.

Sentencing Soper at the Old Bailey on Thursday, Judge Anthony Bate said: 'You are an intelligent man with gifts of scholarship and erudition. However, as you acknowledged during cross examination, showing a degree of insight, that is not how you will be remembered.

'Your good qualities are utterly overshadowed by the proven catalogue of vile abuse for which you are now at last held to account. Your disgrace is complete.'

His disappearance was 'meticulously planned', the judge added according to the Guardian, but Soper insisted it was down to 'stupidity and cowardice', fearing that his life's work would be destroyed.

'If you want to destroy a priest, vicar, anybody, all you have to do is make an accusation up against them,' he said. 'Their future is ruined, their character is ruined.'

Soper joined St Benedict's as a teacher in 1972 and became the headmaster of its middle school from 1977-83 and was abbot of Ealing Abbey, the school's parent body, from 1991-2000. After he retired he worked in Rome in the Benedictine headquarters before former pupils of his went to police alleging abuse in 2004. In 2011 Soper was questioned by police and then jumped bail, withdrew £182,000 from a Vatican bank account and fled to Kosovo.

In a statement to court one victim described having a breakdown after being initially told there was insufficient evidence to convict Soper. 

'I have tried countless times to take my own life as I just cannot cope any more,' he said. 'I still hear Soper's voice in my head. I can still picture him. I have flashbacks and nightmares.

'I feel like I'm living in a black hole and I still can't climb out of it. He has damaged my life and I'm afraid that that damage will never go away.'

Soper maintains his innocence. 

Jane Humphryes QC, Soper's defence barrister, told the court: 'It's fair to say Mr Soper maintains his innocence in relation to all the offences, and describes his situation as a serious miscarriage of justice.'