Former Fairbanks Priest Who Bought Child Porn to Be Monitored for Life

By Chris Klint
KTUU
June 8, 2015

http://www.ktuu.com/news/news/former-fairbanks-priest-who-bought-child-porn-to-be-monitored-for-life/33465588

A man who once served as a priest in Fairbanks will serve 10 years in federal prison, after authorities say he admitted to paying for and viewing child pornography from the Philippines.

U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler’s office previously said little about the charges against 58-year-old Clint Landry, who had served as the parish priest at the Sacred Heart Cathedral since June 2011. That silence ended Monday, however, in a statement announcing Landry’s sentencing after he pleaded guilty to attempted enticement of a minor.

According to Loeffler’s office, Landry used at least eight different Yahoo accounts to negotiate Filipino sex shows involving children between June 2013 and May 2014. He paid for the child porn using Western Union money transfers.

“A search of the computer found multiple sexually-explicit Instant Messages (IM) between the defendant and others believed to be located in the Philippines,” prosecutors wrote. “In many of these IMs, the defendant is negotiating with a Filipino co-conspirator about viewing sexually explicit conduct involving minors through webcams and Skype communications.”

Prosecutors provided numerous examples of transactions, some with explicit descriptions of the content Landry had bargained for.

“On June 13, 2013, the defendant communicated with a co-conspirator, asking ‘[c]an you show me young boys[?]’” prosecutors wrote. “He went on to ask, ‘what handsome young boys do you have?’ When told that the available ‘young boy’ was 10 years old, the defendant’s response was ‘ok,’ and he inquired ‘how much.’ The defendant then attempted to offer 1600 Philippine pesos for online access to the child, or approximately $35.”

In a separate Yahoo exchange on May 19, 2014, Landry received a set of even darker materials.

“The defendant requested from the Yahoo user ‘boy pics,’ and wrote, ‘give me pics…boys and girls,’” prosecutors wrote. “Soon after, the Yahoo user sent 12 emails with image and video files attached. The image and video files showed prepubescent girls and boys engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including sadistic and masochistic conduct.”

Landry was placed on leave by the Fairbanks diocese and removed from public service in May 2014, when the allegations first came to light. At his Friday sentencing, Chief U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline cited both his abuse of the community’s trust and the need to deter future behavior -- sentencing Landry to a regime of “lifetime supervision” ranging from sex offender registration and treatment to Internet restrictions and polygraph tests.

“You are going to be watched forever,” Beistline said, according to prosecutors. “You are never acting out again, never doing anything again to hurt children.”