A vicar's wife has told a tribunal how her husband led a double life as a bisexual sex addict.
Reverend James Meredith Day gave the appearance of respectability but those closest to him learned of his dark sexual fantasies and fondness for violent pornography.
Speaking at a Church of England tribunal in London, Birte Day said her husband had taken part in group sex, visited gay saunas and attempted to set up meetings with prostitutes.
Mrs Day, who is now estranged from the vicar, said he grew "powerful and menacing" and even strangled her with a scarf until she couldn't breathe and spanked her for wearing shorts around workmen.
"While he was holding the ends of the scarf he pulled me close and spat in my face," she said.
"It temporarily stopped me from breathing."
Reverend Day has now been banned from the ministry for life as a result of the tribunal, which was triggered by a complaint made by his wife.
Since their split in 2012, Mrs Day has collected a mass of evidence, including pornographic images that had been taken from his computer and references to a number of homosexual liaisons.
Some of the images and videos showed extreme scenes. The image allegedly involved a woman and two men, one of whom was also a vicar.
She said she had collected "at least 100 sketches" that appeared to show naked women being tortured and burned.
The tribunal found that Day, who was also a psychology professor and had been educated at Cambridge, held a substantial amount of depraved and perverted images and that his conduct had been "unbecoming and inappropriate".
After shocking the tribunal with her revealing statement, Mrs Day announced that "the two most important elements in his life were God and sex."
Day, who was originally from America, moved his family to Cambridge in 2001 while he completed theological training. Two years later he was ordained as a deacon before moving to Brussels. In 2012 Mrs Day made the decision to split from her husband and started to look into divorce proceedings, which was when she began to notice a change in his behaviour.
She said the father of three began 'neglecting' her and started to spend an increasing amount of time online.
Mrs Day said that others outside the marriage would not have been aware of his behaviour because he 'projected himself to be a successful and respectable person'.
James Meredith Day. Photo / Supplied
In an email to his wife, she said that he revealed that he had an addiction.
Day said: "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 explained to the tribunal that she had also found receipts and business cards from gay saunas in foreign cities. When she confronted him to ask about the visits, he replied: "Am I not allowed to go to the sauna and do something for myself and be a free man?"
Mrs Day said she had also seen another email to one of the vicar's friends in which he said: "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."
She told the tribunal he created the alter ego, Henry Olsen, which he used to secretly meet men and women, including one called Amanda in Brussels who charged 130 euros an hour.
"When I asked James about Henry Olsen, he admitted using the name as an identity," she said, according to the Sun.
Mrs Day discovered that her ex-husband had been involved with a number of men. The tribunal found that Day, who worked at the English Church in Ostend from 2003 to 2005, had not committed any crimes but that the allegations of assaults made against him by his wife had been "proven in its entirety".
Although Day did not attend the tribunal, he claimed in an email that he had collected dozens of letters that would cast serious doubt on the credibility of his wife.
