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Byline: Nick Craven and Ross SlaterSHAMED Co-op Bank former chairman the Reverend Paul Flowers was allowed to lie repeatedly without being challenged in his interview with Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman, we can reveal today.His account was a mixture of outright falsehoods and half-truths designed to blame anyone but himself, our dossier of evidence shows. Ever since The Mail on Sunday first revealed the Methodist minister's use of illegal drugs and tawdry liaisons with rent boys last November, he has never taken the opportunity to exercise his right of reply or deny any of our stories.Yet on the supposedly impartial BBC flagship programme last week, the former Labour councillor was allowed free rein to accuse The Mail on Sunday of printing 'pure and utter fiction' - claims gleefully repeated on Twitter and Radio 4 by both Paxman and Newsnight's editor, former Guardian deputy editor Ian Katz.The truth is that all our stories about Flowers's depraved lifestyle and appalling lack of judgment are true:Each one has been backed up by evidence, which is the real reason he has never complained to the newspaper, nor launched any legal action.His assertion that rehab had been 'life-changing', for him, implying that he was now free of drugs, was shown to be false in our story in January, which Paxman and his team would surely have known.Flowers's claim that he did not take drugs until his mother's illness around 2012 was disputed by a friend who said his drugs habit began around 2010.Flowers told Paxman that a month in therapy was 'cathartic and traumatic' and added: 'I've changed because of that process.'But The Mail on Sunday has clear evidence that he returned to his life of illegal drugs and rent boys within a fortnight of his release from hospital. As we reported on January 12 this year, in a taped phone call on January 8, as he negotiated with a rentboy for a forthcoming liaison, Flowers said: 'I will have K [horse tranquilliser ketamine] but that's all. You have what you want.'Yet after Flowers made his outrageous assertions about The Mail on Sunday, Paxman merely asked: 'There were stories that were printed that were true and they concerned drugs?' Flowers replied, 'Those are still the issues that the police are investigating.' In complete contrast to his usual dogged style, Paxman dropped the topic and moved on.FLOWERS, 63, who faces investigations by police and City regulators, was exposed by The Mail On Sunday last November when he was filmed counting out banknotes, allegedly to buy cocaine and crystal meth.He was arrested over an alleged conspiracy to supply class A drugs and has twice been bailed by police.Last week's 'cosy' interview was greeted with widespread derision not only for Flowers' inadequate answers, but for Paxman's uncharacteristically soft questioning. Senior Guardian journalist Esther Addley tweeted: 'Paul Flowers is quite something. Seems to have made a career blinding people with his religiosity. Surprised he's tamed Paxo tho.'And Channel 5 reporter Julian Druker added: 'Is this Jeremy Paxman's cosiest-ever interview?' Flowers suggested that it was his mother Muriel's illness, leading up to her death in October 2012, which had been among the factors responsible for his descent into drugs, yet The Mail on Sunday has discovered he told his dealer Peter Wilson he had been using drugs since 2010, a year after taking the helm at the bank.The former dealer and friend said: 'When I asked him how long he had been doing drugs for, he said it was for about three years. 'He said that he decided that he wanted to try everything. He often said he wanted to grow old disgracefully and that he wanted to be a bad boy and just enjoy himself. When it came to drugs, he was like a kid in a sweet shop.' Wilson was also surprised to hear Flowers blaming the death of his mother for his fragile mental state. …

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