BARNSTABLE (MA)
Providence Journal
01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, November 29, 2005
BY C. EUGENE EMERY JR.
Journal Staff Writer
The Rev. Stephen A. Fernandes, the 55-year-old New Bedford priest who pleaded guilty in September to child-pornography possession and distribution charges, was sentenced in Superior Court yesterday to eight months at the Duke's County House of Correction on Martha's Vineyard.
He will be eligible for parole in three months.
Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. said his office had sought a three-year sentence after investigators found about 650 pictures and 114 videos on his laptop computer of children engaging in sex acts.
They were discovered after Father Fernandes took the computer to a Fall River repair shop because it was running slowly. A technician at DEG Associates found the movies and pictures and the company notified the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River, which passed word on to Walsh's office.