Soho rector is removed from his post

A parish in the West End has been left without a formal leader a week before Christmas after its rector was removed from his post.

The Diocese of London said that Father David Gilmore of St Anne's Church, Dean Street, had been found guilty at an ecclesiastical tribunal of "conduct unbecoming or inappropriate to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders".

A spokesman said he would be prohibited from exercising ministry as a priest for two years.

Mr Gilmore, a former mental health social worker, evicted the Soho Society, a community group, from its base in the tower of the church this year and was dismissed from the board of the House of St Barnabas, which helps the homeless, last December.

He was unavailable for comment today.