Pennsylvania court sentences child porn priest to eight years in prison

January 3, 2013

Former priest Bartley Sorensen of the US state of Pennsylvania was yesterday sentenced to eight years and one month in federal prison after pleading guilty to  charges in May 2012.

Sorenson, now aged 63, was discovered to be downloading child pornography by an employee of his parish at the St. John Fisher Church in, in December 2011. The employee had been tutored on how to distinguish predators. Police investigating the case found some 5,000 child pornography images in Sorenson's church office.

Following Sorenson's release, he will also be supervised for five years. Sorenson has also been ordered to pay a fine of $25,000. He claimed that he wanted to be caught and left the image on his computer screen in order to be found out and required to go to counselling, but was unaware that it was illegal.