Former Bank of Ireland chief executive Mr Michael Soden has said that he was the "victim - not the perpetrator" in the recent controversy that forced him to leave his €1.6 million a year job as a result of viewing an adult website.

Mr Soden yesterday attended a ceremony at University College Dublin at which the chairman of the bank's court of directors, Mr Laurence Crowley, was awarded an honorary doctorate in economics. Mr Soden had a long-standing invitation to join the celebration.

Asked afterwards by The Irish Times if relations between him and the bank were still good, he replied "of course". He added: "I think when this comes out, it will be clear that I am the victim, not the perpetrator, and that is the truth.

"For somebody to do an unauthorised audit and to take the proceeds of that and give them to the press is akin to a confessor, a priest, taking somebody's confession and going to the pulpit. The breakdown of trust and honesty was an unbelievable thing."

He said that a lot of people had told him since that the punishment was not commensurate with the crime, but he stressed that his decision to go was his and not the institution's. However, he added that he was keen to leave the matter behind, as it was not fair to the bank. "It was me, not the institution, that did anything wrong," he said.

Mr Soden resigned less than two weeks ago after an audit of the bank's internal computer systems revealed that he had viewed a website with adult content, against the institution's rules for staff internet use. He voluntarily left after queries were received from the Sunday Business Post, which had details of the audit and the site viewed by Mr Soden.

A bank spokesman said yesterday that it did not have any comment to make on Mr Soden's remarks. The bank is carrying out its own inquiry into the affair, as is Hewlett Packard, which now manages the bank's information technology function.

The financial institution transferred that area to Hewlett Packard last year. The move led to an industrial dispute within the bank's IT section, as employees there had to transfer to the technology company. They did this after their unions negotiated a compensation package.

Mr Soden is still negotiating a severance deal with the bank's board. He said yesterday that this was covered by his contract with the bank.

According to its annual report, his total package was valued at €1.6 million in the year to the end of March last, compared with €1.3 million in the previous 12-month period. He also has options on 461,000 of the bank's shares - 200,000 were granted last year.

Mr Soden had been with Bank of Ireland since 2002, joining it from National Australia Bank. Last week, the bank appointed Mr Brian Goggin, head of its asset management business, to succeed him.