PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
By Brian Bowling
Published: Wednesday, January 2, 2013
The Rev. Bart Sorensen, formerly of St. John Fisher Church in Churchill, will serve up to eight years and one month in prison for receiving and possessing thousands of pornographic images of young boys.
U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch sentenced Sorensen, 63, on Wednesday. He also must pay a $25,000 fine, spend five years on probation and register as a sex offender.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh removed Sorensen from active ministry and placed him on administrative leave in December 2011.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Haller said that Sorensen admitted to investigators he viewed child pornography for about 10 years. He initially claimed he was only looking at a child porn website because a parishioner was concerned that his daughter was spending a lot of time on the site, but he later admitted no parishioner made such a request, Haller said.
A detective from the Allegheny County District Attorney‘s office arrested Sorensen on state charges in December 2011 after a parish worker spotted the priest looking at an image of a partially clad boy on his computer.
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