Priest in Landmark US Pedophile Trial Pleads Guilty

AFP
March 22, 2012

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Edward Avery pleaded guilty to conspiracy to endanger the welfare of a child (AFP/File)

A former US Catholic priest who was to have been part of a landmark trial on Monday pleaded guilty Thursday to sex crimes.

Edward Avery pleaded guilty to conspiracy to endanger the welfare of a child and also to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, the court clerk at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas told AFP.

He avoids trial, but was immediately sentenced to between two-and-a-half and five years in prison.

Avery was one of the three co-defendants in a trial set to start Monday featuring the first Catholic Church official to be prosecuted for covering-up incidents in the raging child molestation scandal.

Monsignor William Lynn, who oversaw the assignment of priests to schools and parishes across the Philadelphia region, faces accusations that he failed to keep priests accused of sexual abuse away from minors.

The case, in which Avery and Lynn's other co-defendant Reverend James Brennan, are accused of sexually abusing boys in the 1990's, is the first of its kind. It was unclear whether Avery, who molested a boy in his church sacristy, would testify against Lynn as part of a plea deal.