A VICAR was found to have 612 child porn images on his computer after his shocked wife turned him in to the police, a court was told.

Seven photographs were of sadism or bestiality and 54 were of sex between adults and children.

The Rev James Morrish, aged 41, trawled the internet during the early hours on just one night, said prosecutor Tariq Shakoor. Police found more than 800 images, Worcester Crown Court was told.

His wife Rosemary alerted police after discovering a naked child on her husband's computer at their home in the rectory at Kingstone, near Hereford.

Father-of-two Morrish yesterday admitted 11 counts of making indecent photographs of children on October 25, 2005. His plea came on the day he was due to face trial after his barrister Samantha Powis asked the judge for an indication of sentence.

Judge Alistair McCreath told Morrish the "worst case scenario" for him would be a suspended prison term of 12 months and a possible ban on working with children.

He said the images were free material, the defendant had no previous convictions and there was no suggestion he was distributing them.

The judge said: "A conviction is difficult for anyone, but for a clergyman it's a significant, severe punishment by reason of his public humiliation and loss of his office."

The case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report and Morrish was granted bail.

Of the 612 images, seven were of the worst level.

Morrish was arrested on November 4, 2005. First he said he had no idea how the images got on to his computer, then said he had been looking for images of girls aged 16 upwards.

He told police: "I suppose it's purely a morbid curiosity. I just thought I don't believe this is so easy to access. I felt terrible. I quite scared myself at some of the things that came up."

Morrish, who was in charge of five rural parishes in Herefordshire, said he had no interest in child porn and was only interested in "legal teens upwards".

Annie Holden, from the Hereford diocese, said Morrish, who has been suspended for 20 months, would now be sacked. "It is not the standard that we expect from our clergy," she said.