A retired Church of England vicar is facing jail after admitting possessing and distributing indecent images of children.
Geoffrey Baulcomb, 79, was found with videos and pictures of children when his cottage in Eastbourne was raided by police in December 2022.
At the Old Bailey on Tuesday, Baulcomb pleaded guilty to distributing an indecent image of a child in March 2022, making more than 40 indecent images of children, and possessing nearly 200 images featuring extreme pornography.
Court papers show the images in the retired vicar’s possession featured a naked 13-year-old girl performing a sex act on a man, boys aged between 14 and 16, adults having sex with animals, and material involving threats to life and serious injury to body parts.
Judge Nigel Lickley KC said Baulcomb would be sentenced at a later date, and adjourned the case for a further hearing next month.
Baulcomb retired from the historic St Mary the Virgin church in Eastbourne, East Sussex, several years ago but remained an ordained priest.
He was defrocked last August after a Church of England disciplinary hearing was told he had been taking drugs for years.
Baulcomb had tried to claim that drug taking was experimental and actually helped his church work.
“The Tribunal considered [his] attempt to justify drug taking as a part of his ministry as entirely misconceived, displaying a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of his Holy Orders', the ruling read.
Sussex Police found crystal meth and ketamine at his home during the raid.
At the time of the disciplinary proceedings, the Bishop of Chichester said Baulcomb has been “asked to stop attending his local church”.
A further hearing has been set for May 2.
Judge Lickley freed Baulcomb on conditional bail until his next court hearing.
