UPDATED::Catholic priest pleads guilty to child porn charges and could face up to 10 years in jail. | Occupy The Vatican

UPDATE::  Philadelphia-area priest gets 20 years for child porn charges

A Catholic priest from the Philadelphia area who pleaded guilty to child porn charges last year was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday.

Mark John Haynes, 56, a former priest at Saint Simon and Jude Church in West Chester, Pennsylvania, was arrested after federal investigators tracked child porn to a church computer — which he later destroyed in an attempt to conceal evidence.

He got two decades in prison after pleading guilty to child porn, destruction of evidence, and using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct.

 

See also::  A Woman Trapped In A Priest's Body

I have hear of all kinds of excuses before, but this one takes the cake.  I think the prosecutor said it well. "being transgender 'doesn't make you a pedophile.'"

Defense Attorney Alan J. Tauber had a more entertaining explanation. He described the 56-year-old priest as a "woman occupying a man's body." According to Tauber, Father Haynes was a troubled soul who, while demonstrating an "extraordinary record of community service" as a priest at eight different parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, never came to terms with his own "gender identity issues."

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A suburban priest who created a fake identity as a teenage girl online to obtain nude pictures of his underage victims pleaded guilty in federal court today. Mark John Haynes, 56, a former priest at Saint Simon and Jude Church in West Chester, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and charges of destroying evidence. He could face up to 10 years in jail.

Haynes was arrested in October 2014 after Chester County police tracked the source of child porn being posted on the Internet to the church. Haynes had created the identity of a 16-year-old girl, “Katie Caponetti,” which he used online to communicate with other minors and to exchange nude pictures and videos with them.

According to court documents, Haynes posted child pornography on “Katie’s” Instagram account from inside Saint Simon and Jude Church. He also created a fake Facebook account and joined dating sites using the fake identity.

Catholic priest pleads guilty to child porn charges and could face up to 10 years in jail. | Occupy The Vatican