AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times
Marissa Calligeros
March 7, 2012
A Catholic priest described himself as a ‘‘tormented’’ man as he pleaded for forgiveness in a Brisbane court today for his offences involving child exploitation material.
Neil Joseph Byrne, 61, whose church was affiliated with a Brisbane primary school, admitted to having sexual fantasies about ‘‘young, blond boys’’, after pleading guilty to eight counts of making child exploitation material and one count of possessing 10 images of child exploitation material.
He was sentenced to nine months in prison, to be wholly suspended, for the offences which occurred over a six year period from August 2005, while he was a priest at The Gap Parish at St John’s Wood, in Brisbane’s inner-west.
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