A retired East Sussex clergyman appeared before the Old Bailey last week to plead guilty to multiple charges involving possession of indecent images of children. Geoffrey Baulcomb (79) the former vicar of St Mary the Virgin in Eastbourne, on 22 April 2025 spoke only to confirm his name and to enter guilty pleas to three counts of making indecent images of children, a single count of distributing an indecent image of a child, and three counts of possessing extreme pornographic images. Police recovered 195 illicit images from his home.

In December 2022 crystal meth and ketamine were discovered by police during a raid on Baulcomb’s home. He accepted a police caution for possessing narcotics, and later told a church tribunal he had been using narcotics, including heroin, ‘periodically’ for 20 years.

A church disciplinary tribunal ‘utterly rejected’ his claim that taking drugs ‘assisted him in carrying out his pastoral mission’ and permanently banned him from the ministry last September. 

At last week’s hearing Judge Nigel Lickley, KC, told Baulcomb that he would be granted bail to return to the court for sentencing on May 2 subject to conditions that include no direct or indirect contact with people under 18.