PHILADELPHIA (PA)
AFP
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — A former US Catholic priest who was to have been part of a landmark trial on Monday pleaded guilty Thursday to sex crimes.
Edward Avery pleaded guilty to conspiracy to endanger the welfare of a child and also to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, the court clerk at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas told AFP.
He avoids trial, but was immediately sentenced to between two-and-a-half and five years in prison.
Avery was one of the three co-defendants in a trial set to start Monday featuring the first Catholic Church official to be prosecuted for covering-up incidents in the raging child molestation scandal.
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