Shocked Russian society learns the details of the brutal murder of a 44-year-old woman by her priest husband in front of their terrified eight-year-old daughter.

According to the Daily Mail citing Russian media, the police arrested the 40-year-old priest Mikhail Zubarev after the murder and beheading of his wife, Victoria Zubarevawhose head was found in the family’s freezer.

Their daughter and son were taken to hospital in the Tatarstan region of Russia, where they are receiving psychological support after their mother was killed.

Parishioners had complained about the “strange” behavior of the priest, who was put on holiday by the Russian Orthodox Church a few weeks ago.

Police sources said Zubarev cut his wife’s throat with a knife, then dismembered her body and, covered in blood, “started to pray” calling on his daughter to do the same.

It was the eight-year-old who called her older brother and asked him to hurry home, where he arrived a short time later.

According to Russian media, the priest placed his wife’s severed head in the freezer, where their daughter found it.

Zubarev was from the Murmansk region of Russia. He graduated from the Moscow Theological School in 2010 and previously worked as a prison chaplain. The priest faces the possibility of a life sentence.