Priest Accused of Porn | "It's Shocking"

By Shelley Orman
Fox 45 News
September 28, 2017

http://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/priest-accused-of-porn-its-shocking

Neighbors in Harford County are still reeling after shocking and disturbing child pornography charges are filed against a former priest.

Fernando Cristancho is charged with creating and possessing child porn.

Court documents detail how the former priest abused three different young boys.

"There was a whole bunch of Bel Air police over here. They were all around the house," said neighbor Chris Kirby.

He and several others living on Hayden Way say 61-year-old Cristancho kept entirely to himself.

"I've never seen him out, and I've been here since April," said Kirby.

He saw Cristancho's arrest last week when police searched his house and took him into custody.

"It's shocking because he is right next door and I didn't know anything about this," the neighbor said.

According to charging documents, investigators found pornographic pictures of children on Cristancho's cell phone, a computer and on an SD card he kept locked up in a safe.

The images were of a 3-year-old boy and two 5-year-old boys.

"How do you get over something like that? I mean, kids are resilient but still, nobody should have to go through anything like that, especially a child. It's just terrible," said Kirby.

Cristancho is a former priest at St. Ignatius church just a few miles away.

"Priests or teachers or anyone like that, they are the ones you trust your children with. So that's very disturbing," said Kirby.

On its website, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has a statement about Fernando Cristancho that dates back to October 2008. It says he has not been permitted to function as a priest since July 2002.

"I didn't know what was going on over there. That's just horrible, though," said Kirby.

Cristancho has a preliminary hearing set for October 19.