Paolo Gabriele

Charged with theft ... Paolo Gabriele. Photo: AP

ROME: Vatican police seized encrypted documents and confidential papers the Pope had marked ''to be destroyed'' when they raided his butler's apartment, a court heard.

Officers from the Vatican Gendarmerie found thousands of papers when they raided Paolo Gabriele's apartment on May 23, acting on suspicions he had leaked highly compromising material to an Italian journalist, who published it in a book.

The haul showed Mr Gabriele, who is charged with aggravated theft, had a keen interest in secret services, espionage, the occult, scandals involving the Vatican bank and the P2, a shadowy Masonic lodge whose members included prominent Italian politicians.

The encoded documents were sent from the Vatican Secretariat of State to papal nuncios, or ambassadors, around the world.

Many of the documents bore the signature of the Pope and shed light on his correspondence with cardinals and other senior figures in the Catholic Church. Some were originals; others had been photocopied.

''There were papers where the Holy Father had written 'To be destroyed' in German,'' said Stefano De Santis, one of the gendarmes.

The stash of documents also referred to the death of ''God's banker'' Roberto Calvi, who was found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982.

Mr Gabriele, 46, had also downloaded from the internet instructions on how to mask his mobile phone number.

Four Vatican gendarmes were cross-examined in the court on the third day of the trial for allegedly stealing compromising papers from the Pope's apartments.

One of the gendarmes, Inspector Silvano Carli, said Mr Gabriele had stashed ''an infinity of documents''.

On Tuesday, the judge in the trial ordered Vatican prosecutors to investigate accusations that Mr Gabriele was mistreated in detention.

Telegraph, London