A vicar who was sacked for having an affair with a married mother-of-four today lost his appeal against the ruling.

The Rev David King, 54, was, from today, removed from his post as Vicar of Middle Esk Moor near Whitby in North Yorkshire and banned from working as an Anglican priest for four years.

Mr King was the first Church of England cleric to face a tribunal under the new 2003 Clergy Discipline Measure which came into effect two years ago and supersedes the old consistory court system for dealing with "conduct unbecoming a clerk in Holy Orders."

The tribunal at Leeds Crown Court in November last year found that the married clergyman had an "improper, intimate and physical relationship" with the woman.

He was suspended, although continued to receive his stipend, in February last year after the woman's husband James Byrne lodged a complaint about the cleric's relationship with his wife Tracy. Both he and the vicar are now divorced from their wives.

Although Mrs Byrne was not one of his parishioners, he met her when she saw him at his vicarage for counselling after her mother died in 2002.

The diocese of York said in a statement today that Mr King will be "permanently removed" from his office as Vicar and prohibited from exercising his priestly ministry for four years.

The Chancery Court of York, which is the most senior Court in the Church of England's northern province, Province of York, dismissed Mr King's appeal.

Mr King did not appeal against the tribunal's finding that he had "pursued an improper, intimate and physical relationship with Mrs Byrne", and that he had conducted himself in a manner unbecoming Clerk in Holy Orders.

The Bishop of Whitby, the Right Rev Robert Ladds, said: "This has been a long and sad process for the parishioners of Middle Esk Moor, for all those hurt by the breakdown of two marriages and for Mr King himself.

"The Chancery Court's decision means that we can now begin to move forward."

He said a new vicar will be appointed as soon as possible.