A VILLAGE website which was "invaded" by porn images is back online - with a pledge that it will stay clean this time.

Copmanthorpe Parish Council's internet message board was at the centre of a storm of publicity last month, after the Evening Press revealed its innocent purpose had been subverted.

Instead of being used as a forum for discussing local issues, porn sites hijacked the site to post links to their shocking material, including explicit photographs and detailed descriptions of sex acts.

One user had left a link to a grim website advertising "reality mature sex" with "older women". Another, styling themselves "Kraska", left a link to a mysterious Russian site.

Parish council chairman Mike Irwin said last month he was considering closing the message board to prevent it from being used in such a shocking way.

But now residents of the south York village will once more be able to use their discussion forum in the way it was intended, after a local computer expert agreed to host it on his own village site.

Coun Irwin said he was "horrified" when he discovered the sickening material on the parish council's site.

"I couldn't believe our website had that sort of rubbish on it," he said. "We were all shocked.

"Apparently, that sort of thing can happen when you have an open forum to put messages on."

But he said the new message board, hosted on local IT expert Chris Sharp's own Copmanthorpe website, would be much better for users.

The new forum enables users to make comments about village matters, as well as post queries on specific issues such as planning and transport.

They can access the board by clicking on the discussion forum button on the parish council's site - at www.companthorpeparishcouncil.org.uk - and following the links.

Coun Irwin said: "In the end this has done us a bit of good.

"I thought it would be useful for everybody in the village to have their discussion forum - I'm interested in attracting young people who are more computer literate.

"Chris Sharp will have control of it and he will be monitoring it more frequently.

"I hope more people will use it."

Updated: 10:46 Friday, March 11, 2005