A Church of England vicar has been defrocked after his wife exposed his life of group sex and visits to gay brothels.

A Church of England tribunal in London heard how the Reverend James Meredith Day’s behaviour led to his wife, Birte Day, deciding to leave him.

She alleged that her estranged husband visited gay saunas and kept a collection of extreme pornography.

“The two most important elements in his life were God and sex,” she claimed.

The Rev Day, who was educated at the University of Cambridge, was accused of becoming “powerful and menacing” towards his wife to the point of spanking her for wearing shorts in front of workmen. “He said I had not to wear indecent clothes, in particular not in front of these men who would be looking at me,” she said.

She also claims that she found cards for gay saunas in their home after they were burgled. When she confronted him, he responded: “Am I not allowed to go to the sauna and do something for myself and be a free man?”

The Sun reports that since leaving her husband in 2012, Mrs Day has collected evidence against him, including extreme pornographic images that were stored on his computer and references to group sex.

A church safeguarding officer told the tribunal that the images including “young teenage” boys and girls, as well as sketches of women being burned at the stake.

Mrs Day said that he sent her an email in which he revealed he had an addiction: “James said that he had a ‘sexual addiction’ and a dependency on sex. He referred to being bisexual and to engaging in sexual activity in gay saunas.”

She added that she had seen another email in which the vicar told one of his friends: “You must never desist on account of my priesthood. Perhaps I should send you photos from a gang bang I participated in to assuage your guilt.”

“I think James wanted to hurt me with his sexual activities and was making me feel guilty as I was just ‘not good enough’,” Mrs Day told the tribunal.

The London tribunal ruled that the Rev Day had not committed any crimes, but had acted in a manner “un­becoming and inappropriate”.

“We accept that much of the conduct, such as the possession of pornography which is not criminally lawful and the seeking of sexual relations with others while he himself being married, would not in many professions or walks of life be unacceptable,” the tribunal concluded. “Standards for the clergy are however and must be different.”