PARISH priest Derek Hailes is back in the headlines nearly 30 years after writing them as a journalist.

Father Hailes (65) retires from his post at Holy Trinity, in Spring Street, Bury, on September 18, after eight years at the church.

But his career as a man of the cloth was never clear-cut. At the age of 17, Fr Hailes was approached by his vicar at his home in Nottingham to explore a career in the church. Instead, he joined the Nottingham Evening Post as a copy boy. He later worked as a reporter on several papers, including the Newark Herald and the South Notts Echo. But after deciding he no longer wanted to report the misfortune of others, he turned to industrial journalism, public relations and marketing.

In 1975, he again thought about a career in the church and enrolled in the Church Army, a Church of England evangelistic organisation, and studied at Wilson Carlile College in London. He was ordained in 1982 and took up a curacy in Nottingham.

During his time in Bury, Fr Hailes has also been the chairman of governors at Holy Trinity School, joint chairman of the new Mosses Tenants' and Residents' Association, a vocations adviser to the Manchester Diocese and a part-time chaplain for the mental health services of Salford.

He will be moving back to Nottingham with his, wife Delores, to be closer to their family.