Trappist monk on distant Welsh island held in bare picture quiz
A trappist monk on a remote Welsh island has confessed to sending naked photographs to a mother of two.
Brother Titus Keet, 76, admitted to The Mail on Sunday that he has 200 pictures of himself posing nude on a beach, and that he had sent some of the images to Lisa Love, 56, a regular visitor to the holy island of Caldey, a three-mile ferry trip from the popular resort of Tenby.
Brother Titus, who has lived on Caldey for 22 years, confirmed he is the man in the photographs and said he had been ‘stupid’ and ‘naive’. Asked why he sent them, he claimed: ‘It was art in the name of God.’
Last night, Ms Love said: ‘It’s not what you expect from a monk who is supposed to spend every day praying mostly in silence. The photographs are silhouettes but you can see his bits. He seems to be enjoying himself. The island is supposed to be a holy place and the monastery goes back centuries. It’s not a nudist camp or a Playboy mansion.’
Ms Love met Brother Titus 15 years ago while staying with her elderly parents in a cottage on the island.
Brother Titus Keet, 76 has admitted to sending some of his 200 photos of himself posing nude on a beach to mother-of-two Lisa Love
After her mother died in 2011 she continued to holiday in the cottage with her teenage daughters, directly opposite the imposing abbey where the monks live.
Ms Love said: ‘I saw him as a friend giving me spiritual guidance after losing my mum. He started writing to me, then letters arrived with naked pictures inside them. I was startled, I didn’t know what to make of it. Why was a monk sending me pictures of himself in the nude?
‘Then there were books with passages about love highlighted in yellow marker pen. I didn’t do anything about it, but I kept it all. It’s still in my attic.’
Ms Love, a tour guide from Narberth, Pembrokeshire, was contacted by Brother Titus years later, this time by text message: ‘I remember one message arrived after it had been very windy and he said, “I hope the wind blows you in my direction.”’
Last month, after wishing the monk ‘a nice day’, she was shocked to receive via text the same naked pictures he had sent more than 10 years earlier. One was captioned: ‘Have a nice day too my dearest Lisa. Share with me the first rays of the sunrise.’
Last week the MoS confronted Brother Titus in the abbey, home to eight Trappist monks.
Lisa Love with two pics sent by Brother Titus. She met the monk 15 years ago while staying with her elderly parents in a cottage on the island.
He told our reporter: ‘I have been stupid and naive. It is art. I was putting my body in the light. I wanted to share with her the body and the light. It is the human body, in its original state. It’s not sexual. I have a whole collection of myself. It it is healthy for people to put their body in nature.’
The monk denied sending the pictures to anyone else. He said getting sexual gratification from sending them to Ms Love was ‘not an option’.
He also claimed that his interest in taking naked pictures of himself comes from his liberal upbringing in Holland. Asked if he had heard of other monks posing nude for the camera he said: ‘No, I am special.’
On Friday local police revealed a 76-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of harassment.
An independent review was launched in April after claims that up to 50 children were sexually abused by monks at the abbey.
