Priest in Child Pornography Case Has Died

By Karen Florin
The Day
May 29, 2013

http://www.theday.com/article/20130529/NWS02/130529602/1047

Former Waterford pastor Dennis Carey, charged last year with possession of hundreds of images of child pornography, has died.

Carey suffered a massive stroke earlier this spring and died of cardiac arrest on May 20, according to his attorney, Ronald F. Stevens. He was 66.

Stevens said Carey had several serious health conditions and that his criminal case in New London Superior Court had been on hold. On Friday, Stevens said he plans to present Carey’s death certificate to the court and ask that the charges be dismissed.

“It’s really a sad thing, to end his life this way,” Stevens said.

Carey had resigned from Waterford’s St. Paul in Chains Church a year ago after state and local police served a search warrant on the rectory, where Carey lived, and seized computers they said contained hundreds of images of child pornography. Following Carey’s arrest, Bishop Michael R. Cote wrote to parishioners of the Diocese of Norwich that he has started the process of dismissing Carey from the church.

Carey had admitted he was addicted to child pornography and had undergone treatment at the St. John Vianney Center in Downingtown, Penn. He had most recently been living at the St. Mary Home, a rehabilitation center in Hartford, according to Stevens.

Carey was facing a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence for possession of child pornography. Stevens said nobody had ever accused Carey of inappropriately touching children.