A pastor jailed for defrauding his church and a grieving parishioner out of a total of £11,000 is to be freed because of the impact on his two children, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Adrian McLaughlin’s 12-month sentence was suspended due to the exceptional circumstances in which his teenage son and daughter were left to fend for themselves.

Senior magistrates also ordered him to pay £1,000 compensation to the widowed member of the congregation he defrauded at St Colman’s Church of Ireland in Dunmurry, Co Antrim.

Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan pointed out that McLaughlin, 50, was not entitled to any personal credit for the breach of trust.

She said: “We feel it was a rather cruel and heartless offense against the good people of this parish.”

McLaughlin was originally jailed in September after being found guilty of defrauding the church of £10,000.

He was also convicted of defrauding a congregation member whose husband had died out of a further £1,000.

The offenses were committed in 2016 at the church where he had served as a minister since 2014.

At that time a fund was established to help cover restoration costs following a fire that caused extensive damage to the building.

With no treasurer at that time, checks issued on the church account required the signatures of the minister and another nominee.

McLaughlin, of Church Avenue in Dunmurry, asked that person to co-sign a check for £10,000 which he claimed would go towards buying a replacement organ for the church.

In November 2016, a member of the congregation appointed treasurer discovered that the check slip for that amount bore the name Northern Ireland Organs Limited, previous tribunals heard.

But it later emerged that McLaughlin had instead checked himself out.

He was also given £1,000 by a bereaved parishioner who had just lost his husband.

She made the donation with the understanding that the money would be used to purchase memorial items in honor of her late partner.

McLaughlin requested that the payee line be left blank on the check and instead of following the widow’s requests, he filled in his own name and pocketed the £1,000.

The disgraced cleric has since lost his position in separate disciplinary proceedings.

He was initially ordered to serve six months behind bars and a further six months on licence, after being told he had treated the parish as his own “personal fiefdom”.

In the Court of Appeals on Friday, defense attorneys argued that McLaughlin’s sentence was manifestly excessive because of the disproportionate burden on the two children he has sole custody of.

Richard McConkey KC said his client’s 19-year-old daughter had put her own senior career on hold to act as a parent to her 16-year-old brother who was studying for his GCSEs.

He told the court she was also forced to sell her clothes to help pay off loans and make ends meet.

Defense counsel responded that the need for a deterrent sentence outweighed the difficulties faced by the defendant’s children.

However, after reading a new statement from McLaughlin’s daughter, the Lady Chief Justice described the defense’s arguments as compelling.

Citing private rights to family life under European law, she identified a strong impact on a son and daughter left to “fend for themselves financially and emotionally”.

“This case has a unique feature where the child and young person are left without a parental figure,” the judge said.

“That’s not something the court has had to consider in our collective experience.”

As McLaughlin has already served more than two months in prison, Dame Siobhan confirmed that the remainder of his 12-month sentence is to be suspended for two years.