March 22, 2006

EX-PRIEST IN LONG I. PERV BUST

LONG ISLAND (NY)
New York Post

By KIERAN CROWLEY and ED ROBINSON

March 22, 2006 -- A former priest tried to solicit sex from an undercover Long Island cop posing on the Internet as a 14-year-old boy, Nassau police said yesterday.

Thomas Bender, 72, of Macungie, Pa., had held several online conversations with the undercover officer dating back to September 2004.

He traveled to Long Island yesterday to meet with the supposed teen with the intention of taking him to a hotel room, cops said.

Instead he was arrested and charged with an attempted criminal sex act and attempting to disseminate indecent material to a minor.

He is expected to be arraigned today.

A priest with the same name plead guilty in 1988 to molesting a teenage altar boy over a six year period in Bally, Pa.

Posted by kshaw at March 22, 2006 07:53 AM