Prosecutors Release Video in Child-Sex Case against Christian School Teacher

By Amy Pavuk
Orlando Sentinel
July 25, 2012

articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-07-25/news/os-geneva-school-teacher-child-sex-discovery-20120725_1_episcopalian-priest-school-teacher-prosecutors

[with video]

Prosecutors released more evidence Wednesday in the case against a local school teacher — who is also an Episcopalian priest — accused of traveling to meet a child for sex.

Brian Gerald Shriner, a 46-year-old man who worked at The Geneva School, was arrested in June following an online undercover operation.

In a video interview released Wednesday, Shriner tells a detective that he wasn't planning to have sex with the girl. Rather, he said he was "writing a novel" that involved the circles of Hell described by the poet Dante's "Inferno," and needed research on the sin of "lust."

"I can show you that I'm writing a novel," Shriner insisted. The detective was incredulous — "You're trying to say that this whole thing was just a research program for a novel?" he asked.

Said Shriner: "I am, I know that sounds ridiculous, but..."

"Yes, it does," the detective replied.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office has reported Shriner actually initiated an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a child. Shriner and the detective communicated via email for about one month and agreed to meet to have sex June 15, the Sheriff's Office said.

Later in the video, Shriner laments that he would lose his job should the arrest come to light.

"I swear I will never do anything stupid like this ever again," he said. Shriner repeatedly said he didn't plan to have sex with the girl, but at one point he conceded that "the possibility" of sex "could have existed" when he traveled to meet her.

Contact: apavuk@tribune.com