A North-East academic who hit the headlines when he said Jesus's head was buried in Scotland has written another book which is set to anger Christians.
In his latest work The Divine Deception, Dr Keith Laidler makes new claims about the Turin Shroud.
He believes the image on the shroud is that of Jesus's embalmed head, placed alongside the headless torso of a Christian crucified in Syria by the Mamluk Turks in the 13th Century.
The Turin Shroud is a piece of cloth imprinted with the image of a man's body, that many Roman Catholics have taken to be the figure of Christ after his crucifixion.
But carbon dating tests in 1988 give an approximate date of 1350 for the shroud. Now, using state-of-the-art computer technology combined with research into ancient documents, Dr Laidler has come up with his remarkable hypothesis.
His extensive researches - revealed in his previous book The Head of God have led him to believe Jesus's head was brought back from the Middle East to Europe by the order of warrior-monks known as The Knights Templar.
They worshipped the head as an idol - known as Baphomet - and created the shroud as a photographic record of their most precious artefact.
Dr Laidler, 50, calls the shroud "a 14th Century fabrication that carries upon it a genuine image of the face of Christ".
He said: "The Templars wanted to do something that would create a record of this absolutely unique relic. They could have had a drawing or painting done but the artist would have put his own interpretation on the piece.
"However the knights were the scientists of their day and, using Arab science, came up with a technique to produce a record of this most sacred relic."
He believes the photographic recording was done by hanging the cloth shroud, pre-treated with salts, inside a darkened room leaving only a small hole for light to come through.
A rock quartz was placed in the hole as a lens and the objects were placed outside the room and illuminated by the sun on to the cloth for a couple of days.
Dr Laidler, who lives in the Durham dales village of Rookhope, said: "The image was still light sensitive on the cloth, but they then 'fixed' it by immersing the shroud in a solution of ammonia or urine.
"There was a great cult of relics at that time, and the Templars could have said the head was that of John the Baptist and charged pilgrims money to see the shroud.
"Instead they preferred to keep the image secret and worship the head in secret. The church at the time decreed you couldn't worship any part of Jesus's adult body.
"In fact the shroud wasn't seen for 50 years after it had been created."
In 1307 some of the monks fled the soldiers of King Philip Le Bel in France, leaving the remaining members of their order to be tortured and burned alive as heretics.
Dr Laidler has concluded that during this period of the Templars' persecution, the Baphomet was eventually carried to Scotland and buried beneath the "Grail Chapel" at Rosslyn, Scotland, built by exiled Knights.
He believes the head could be found today if excavation was permitted.
He said: "My researches have opened a window into a forgotten past that encompasses the original Christian beliefs, the lost history of Christ's disciples and a tale of vanishing technologies.
"And I have discovered a deception that has been practised successfully on the whole of the Christian world for over 600 years. But this was no ordinary fraud - it had not been perpetrated for either of the two usual motives, lust for power or greed for gold.
"It was a divine deception, needful because the medieval Zeitgeist, the spirit of the time, would not allow the truth to be spoken openly."
His researches have shown the irregular position of the head in relation to the body on the shroud's outline, and he says computer images help to prove the head is a separate addition. It is also too small for the body.
Last night he said he hoped Christians would not dismiss his theories without reading the book.
Dr Laidler said: "If you believe Jesus went bodily up into Heaven then you have to disbelieve what I am saying. However for Christians who believe a spiritual resurrection, without the need for a bodily resurrection, is enough, then I hope they will accept what I am saying."
The book, sub-titled The Church, the Shroud, and the Creation of a Holy Fraud is published by Headline Books on March 30.
Dr Laidler was educated at Sheffield University and took his PhD in anthropology at Durham University.
He is also known for making documentaries about the lives of Chinese pandas, and also hand-reared an orangutan for the first 15 months of its life.
Now Dr Laidler is desperate to explore his theories about Jesus's head further.
He said: "I am certain in myself that the head of Christ lies beneath the Apprentice Pillar. The evidence is compelling. It is frustrating Rosslyn Chapel won't allow a full excavation.
"The Templars are still in Scotland and one of them has contacted me about a secret passage from the chapel to the nearby castle, so it may be that the head has already been removed."
He added: "I spent six years pulling the strands together and tracking the journey of the Knights Templar from France, and four years on my researches about the shroud."
Last night the Rt Rev Ambrose Griffiths, Roman Catholic Bishop of Newcastle and Hexham, said: "Given the amount of research that's already been done on the shroud, I would be sceptical about such a completely new theory."
[Original headline: Unveiling mysteries shrouding holy relic]
