A vicar arrested for possessing indecent images of children sent an email "expressing remorse" to the police before jumping to his death, an inquest heard.

Father Charles Richardson, 60, a Church of England vicar, was arrested in May last year when police found 31 indecent films on his computer.

He was due to answer police bail and was expected to be charged with the offence but just days before he killed himself by leaping from St Margaret's Bay cliffs in Dover.

An inquest at Folkestone Magistrates' Court heard he sent an email "expressing remorse" to police just before his suicide.

Richardson, who was vicar of St John the Evangelist in East Dulwich, London, had received counselling after an earlier attempt to end his life, the inquest was told.

Before driving to his death on November 20 last year he texted a friend saying: "Sorry, car in Dover by the lighthouse. Take care. I can't carry on anymore."

He had also left a message on his partner's desk, the inquest heard.

Detective Sergeant Ben Loose said Richardson had been "fully co-operating" with the investigation.

Richardson was also the former rural dean and chaplain to the lifeboat in Hastings, East Sussex.

Allegations about the vicar were passed to a British child abuse unit in 2012 following an operation by Canadian investigators.

He was on a list of 2,000 men suspected of buying child porn films from a Toronto-based website British police received in 2012.

But the list was left in an in-tray until 2013, when it was belatedly passed on to the Metropolitan police.

It was not until May last year that they raided his home by St John's church.

Coroner Rachel Redman recorded a verdict of suicide.