A vicar has become the first to be found guilty of spiritual abuse after he tried to stop a teenage boy seeing his girlfriend.

The Reverend Timothy Davis, vicar of Christ Church Abingdon, was found to be guilty of misconduct after a tribunal found that his "intense mentoring" of the boy between 2012 and 2013 amounted to abuse.

The disciplinary tribunal found that he had "sought to control" the boy's life and relationships "by the use of admonition, Scripture, prayer and revealed prophecy".

Nightly one-on-one mentoring sessions which lasted for up to two hours took place unsupervised in the boy's bedroom, it said.

The abuse lasted for 18 months, when the boy was aged 15 and 16.

Mr Davis moved in with the boy's family and would become angry if he did not come to his services because he was with his girlfriend.

He called her "evil" and her family "bad seed" and "poisonous", quoting Matthew's Gospel to support his claims.

The boy, who cannot be identified, told the tribunal that Mr Davis hugged him while crying, which he found "uncomfortable" and he was forced to pray with him morning and evening because he was told "God was saying that is what I should do".