A parish councillor who set up a council website refused to shut it down when links to pornographic sites were found on it, an inquiry has found.

Instead of ending Yatton Parish Council's embarrassment, Chris Graeme- Drury went off on a six-week holiday to Australia, investigators said.

Mr Graeme-Drury – whose day job was as a web designer – was yesterday found guilty of breaking the council's code of conduct by a panel appointed by the Standards Board for England, which monitors councillors' behaviour.

It reprimanded him but could take no further action as he had resigned from the council before the conduct hearing – and is now believed to have left the village to start a new life abroad.

A complaint was made last year after a member of the public who logged on to the parish website which Mr Graeme-Drury had created, discovered links to pornographic sites when clicking on the site's disclaimer.

Despite being asked to shut the site down immediately by the then parish council chairman Juley Howard, the investigation heard that Mr Graeme-Drury failed to do so, instructed other parish councillors not to touch the website, and went on holiday to Australia for six weeks.

Days after he went on holiday, the parish council had to arrange for the site to be taken offline.

An investigation was launched by the Standards Board for England which appointed North Somerset council standards committee investigating officer and deputy monitoring officer, Fiona Robertson, to investigate the claims.

The standards committee agreed that Mr Graeme-Drury, who resigned from the council in August this year, had broken the code of conduct on both complaints.

Mrs Robertson said: "This case was one of the most serious breaches of the code which I have dealt with so far."

Standards committee chairman, Peter Barrett, said: "There is nothing to suggest that Mr Graeme-Drury was responsible for the pornographic material on the website.

"However, by his actions in not resolving the problem satisfactorily and as a result of his instruction to others not to interfere with the website, we feel overall he breached the code of conduct."

No members from Yatton Parish Council were at the hearing. A spokesman for Yatton Parish Council said they did not wish to make a comment.

The Bristol Evening Post tried to contact Mr Graeme-Drury but he was not available last night.

Friends and neighbours said he and his family had now left the village and had recently moved abroad. Their former home in Horsecastle Close is understood to have been rented to another family.