A close friend of John McAleese has dismissed reports linking the former SAS soldier to child porn allegations.

Chris Keenan said the real reason that an extradition warrant was approved by Hereford Magistrates in 2010 was due to Mr McAleese’s work in Greece.

He said that the retired soldier was helping to stop Greek ships being targeted by Indian Ocean pirates who were passing on ransom money to the Taliban.

Mr Keenan said that his friend had decided that the best way to stop the illegal seizures was to heavily arm the Greek ships.

Mr McAleese, he said, had started talks with arms manufacturers to import a substantial amount of weapons and the British Government wanted to meet to check McAleese was still “on side”.

“The only problem was that John did not have much respect for authority and did not respond to emails,” Mr Keenan said.

“And that was the real reason for the low-level warrant.”