An Anglican vicar accused of engaging in group sex and keeping a "depraved and perverted" collection of pornography has been banned from ministry for life after

Rev James Meredith Day also attended homosexual saunas and sought out the services of prostitutes, Birte Day told a Church of England tribunal in London.

Describing her former husband as sexually attracted to both genders, she added: "He often said the two most important elements of his life were God and sex."

Defrocking Rev Day, the tribunal ruled the behaviour of Rev Day, who was born in the US and attended Cambridge University, was "un­becoming and inappropriate".

Ms Day told the panel she first noticed a change in her ex-husband's behaviour after the couple moved to Brussels, following Rev Day's ordination as a deacon in 2003.

The couple split in 2012.

The Diocese in Europe, where Rev Day had been serving, told Premier: "The Diocese in Europe is saddened that a priest who formerly held an unpaid part-time post in the diocese has been found by a disciplinary tribunal to have fallen sort of the high standards that such a calling requires.

"The diocese has cooperated fully with the legal process which was initiated by the church authorities."