UPDATED::New Jersey priest arrested in first criminal case from state's clergy abuse task force

UPDATE:: Former Diocese of Metuchen priest gets four years in sex assault case

A former Diocese of Metuchen Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of a teenage girl when he was a youth group adviser in Woodbridge in the early 1990s has been sentenced to four years in state prison.

As part of his sentence, Thomas P. Ganley, 64, of Phillipsburg is to have no contact with the victim or her family and no unsupervised contact with any child under age 18. He also is required to register as a Megan's Law sex offender, Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Diane Pincus ruled. 

Ganley’s attorney William Fetky, who had sought a sentence of probation or time in the county jail or three years in prison, said his client has 45 days to decide whether to appeal.

UPDATE: Former Diocese of Metuchen priest pleads guilty to sexual assault

A former Catholic priest in the Diocese of Metuchen is facing a four-year prison term after pleading guilty Monday to the sexual assault of a teenage girl who was a member of the youth group where he served as the adviser in the early 1990s.

Standing before Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Diane Pincus, Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg, waived indictment and pleaded guilty to sexual assault, a second-degree crime. Other charges filed against Ganley have been dismissed as part of the plea.

Ganley admitted that between 1992 and 1994, while a priest at St. Cecelia Church in the Iselin section of Woodbridge, he had oral and vaginal penetration with a girl who was at least 16 years old but less than 18 years old. At the time, Ganley was the head of the youth ministry at the church.

New Jersey authorities announced Thursday that a priest has been charged with sexual assault based on allegations stemming from the 1990s in the first criminal case by the state's new Clergy Abuse Task Force.

Father Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg, was arrested Wednesday on allegations that he sexually abused a minor between 1990 and 1994, while he worked at Saint Cecelia Church in Woodbridge, according to a press release from the state Attorney General's Office.

The girl was between the age of 14 and 17 when the alleged assaults occurred.

New Jersey priest arrested in first criminal case from state's clergy abuse task force