THE Rev David Templeton was a celebrity cleric in Northern Ireland. He gave sermons on pop music and was a regular broadcaster for BBC and Downtown Radio religious programmes.
"There was nothing old-fashioned or fuddy-duddy about him," said a fellow minister. "He was really outgoing. He liked a laugh and a joke." Another colleague said he was "bohemian, a bit of a character".
"David was the antithesis of the dour Presbyterian. He was short and stout, an instantly recognisable figure. He had a pushy black beard and longish hair. He could look a bit unkempt sometimes."
It was his kidneys which had made Mr Templeton famous. He was the North's longest-surviving transplant patient. In 1976, he suffered acute kidney failure and was given five weeks to live. He received a kidney from his mother and had lived a healthy life since.
Schoolfriends never doubted that David Templeton would become a minister. "He was very academic," said one. "He loved Latin and the classics. He didn't play rugby or football like the rest of us."
Surprisingly, he did poorly in his exams, left school early and joined the civil service. However, he went to night classes and eventually graduated from the Open University and Ulster Polytechnic with an arts degree. He later gained a Master of Theology from Queen's University Belfast.
He was installed as minister of Greyabbey Presbytenan Church, Co Down, to years ago. A bachelor, he had a wide social circle but still led a very private existence.
"He knew an awful lot of people but nobody seemed to be that dose to him," said a friend. "He was a very private person." A colleague said he was a voracious reader: "He was into the hefty stuff, psychology, theology and sociology."
Mr Templeton (42) died of a heart attack on Monday night after sustaining serious injuries six weeks ago in a vicious loyalist attack. The RUC has now instigated a murder inquiry. In the early 1990s, an alleged sex offender died after he was shot in the legs in an IRA "punishment" attack in Derry.
Eighteen months ago, customs officials at Belfast International Airport had searched Mr Templeton as he disembarked from an Amsterdam flight. They found a gay pornographic video featuring adult men. He paid a standard fine and the RUC was called in to investigate the incident. His home was searched but no legal proceedings were initiated.
The Belfast newspaper Sunday Life later ran a story referring to him as a "gay porn cleric". He resigned as minister at Greyabbey;
"He wasn't pushed in any way, said a Presbyterian source. "He did the honourable thing and left himself. It was a pragmatic approach which gained him sympathy in the church. He knew that not all his congregation would continue to accept him."
A gay rights activist whom Mr Templeton contacted said he was very upset by events. "He asked me for advice about how to deal with the media and the RUC investigation. He would have liked to have stayed in Greyabbey but he didn't receive the necessary support from senior church figures there.
"He was very depressed. He was in a Christian cafe in Belfast one day and was asked to leave the premises. He became suicidal and received treatment in a mental institution.
Mr Templeton moved to a flat in a loyalist area of Newtownabbey, on the outskirts of north Belfast. Friends thought it was an unwise move but he is believed to have been short of money. It is understood that workmen carrying out repairs on his house discovered other pornographic videos and this drew him to the attention of loyalist paramilitaries.
Three masked men, wielding cudgels studded with nails, broke into his home on February 7th. Mr Templeton sustained broken legs and serious head injuries. His family and friends said he was making a good recovery and adopting a positive attitude about the future when he suffered the heart attack.
Relatives were too upset to speak to the press yesterday but in a brief statement they expressed their sadness at his death. The Presbyterian Church and Families Against Intimidation and Terror condemned the "punishment" attack.
Mr Oliver Brannigan, the North's deputy chief probation officer, said there was no evidence that Mr Templeton had ever harmed anyone and described his attackers as brutal. "How you beat someone to death and maintain that you are holding the moral high ground is beyond my comprehension," he said.
The editor of Sunday Life, Mr Martin Lindsay, said Mr Templeton's death was "tragic" but defended the decision to run the original story. A gay rights activist said the newspaper would not have taken the same attitude if it had been a heterosexual pornographic video.
There is speculation that Sunday Life has obtained information about additional pornographic material discovered at Mr Templeton's home by either the RUC or the workmen - and plans to run another story this weekend.