A VICAR has lost his appeal against a four month jail sentence for keeping a loaded handgun in his bedroom.

The Rev Michael Daggett, aged 54, had been jailed by a district judge at Salford Magistrates Court, despite pleas for mercy by parishioners and Church of England colleagues after police found the antique gun in his grandfather clock at his vicarage in Swinton.

Daggett, a 32-stone American clergyman who worked as a vicar in Swinton and had been a curate in Tyldesley before that, initially told police and the public he needed the weapon for "protection" having disturbed burglars at his home in 1993.

But he also claimed he kept it because it was a family heirloom and loaded it out of "curiosity".

He said he did not think the firearm was illegal under present UK law.

The vicar's jail term at Manchester Prison alongside killers and rapists sparked outrage among his congregation.

At an appeal hearing at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester Crown Court Judge Peter Lakin, sitting with two magistrates, said: "We found this a very difficult case and have given it anxious and detailed consideration.

"It is a sad fact of life that gun crime is a severe and growing problem. Any offences contrary to the Firearms Act are taken very seriously by this court, which has a clear public duty.

"It was dangerous and irresponsible for you to have an illegally held and loaded gun in your home. While it was well hidden, any burglar could have found it and certainly found the ammunition.

"It is quite possible the gun and ammunition could have found its way into criminal hands. You say you had it for self protection. When discussing this, you told a probation officer would have used it to 'do what needed to be done'."

Daggett who had been vicar at Holyrood in Swinton for 11 years, and before that was a curate in Tyldesley, was originally from Oregon in the USA.