Two exclusive stories by the Birmingham-based Sunday Mercury about Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse are to be presented to a top inquiry team.

Lord Nolan is heading an investigation into child-sex scandals across the country. An interim report is expected to be published in February.

Copies of the Sunday Mercury from October 29 and November 5 are being submitted to Lord Nolan’s inquiry after they were seen by Peter Jennings, press secretary to the Archbishop of Birmingham.

Mr Jennings said: “What is reported about the Catholic Church by newspapers around the country will be an extremely valuable contribution to the committee’s work. It is felt that the Sunday Mercury’s articles will add to the overall aim.”

On October 29, the Mercury wrote about a parish priest who had been suspended pending a police investigation into a complaint that he indecently assaulted an 11-year-old girl 20 years ago.

The following week, the newspaper reported that another priest had been accused of sexually abusing boys in the Midlands more than 40 years ago.

In the same issue, the Archbishop of Birmingham – The Most Rev Vincent Nichols – promised, in an exclusive interview, to root out any paedophile priests in his archdiocese.

Meanwhile, there have been developments in two of the newspaper’s investigations from earlier in the year.

The Sunday Mercury investigated “slimming pills” marketed by Newtons Traditional Remedies, of Solihull. Now the MP for Meriden, and shadow health minister, Caroline Spelman has told the Sunday Mercury she will investigate the firm after it was rapped by advertising watchdogs for misleading the public for an eighth time.

A Birmingham businessman is also to be investigated by West Midlands Police after the newspaper revealed his plans to lure Christmas shoppers into prostitution.

The Mercury put together a dossier of evidence after an undercover reporter met the man and learned that he was employing an army of street workers to hand out cards to women in Birmingham city centre offering them work with his escort agency.

The sleazy businessman admitted to the undercover reporter there was a “sexual aspect” to his business. When he was confronted by the newspaper later, he defended his actions by saying he was only giving women an opportunity.

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