HOMELESS people have been evicted from a Weymouth church because the vicar believed they were taking illegal drugs.

The Rev Tim Greenslade asked rough sleepers to leave the porch of St John's Church at Greenhill after he found discarded needles and saw men urinating on the walls.

Hoteliers and residents were angry when a group took shelter there in the winter and Mr Greenslade has admitted he was partly pressured into acting by his neighbours.

He said: "Some have been pretty unpleasant and made a big fuss and some have understanding of how difficult this is for me.

"I gave the homeless people a week's notice and asked them to move because the position was becoming untenable.

"There were occasions when they were urinating on the church and I found things that suggested drugs had been injected.

"I said to one of them 'I can't defend you if you do things like that'.

"We chatted about our needs and their needs and what the outcome would be, but on one occasion there were cross words because of what they were doing."

Mr Greenslade added: "At first the idea was to give them shelter in the cold weather but they took it a bit further than that and set up home.

"I am not washing my hands of the problem - I am working with other churches to find a solution.

"But it is not just our responsibility, we need help from the council and other agencies.

"Maybe we can do something like build a day centre, but it takes time and nobody can wave a magic wand."

Mr Greenslade was backed up by others who work to support homeless people.

Father Philip Dyson, priest of St Augustine's Roman Catholic Church, leads Weymouth's Rough Sleepers Action group. He said: "All of us are very concerned that the homeless people have abused the church's hospitality.

"You can see it is a dilemma but I think Tim made the right decision.

"It's one thing sheltering for a few nights while the weather is inclement, but they were there for months and making it their home."

Soup run organiser Michael Daniel said: "I am not at all surprised, because of the mess they were making.

"I think they brought it on themselves - they were noisy, not tidying up and you could see where they urinated on the walls."

Rough sleepers have already been removed from the tumbledown Maiden Street Methodist Church and a squat off Westwey Road.