PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
November 7, 2013
By Rich Lord / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
After 10 years of downloading Internet pornography and periodic trips to Thailand to meet teenage boys, retired priest David F. Dzermejko faces a potential three to four years in prison following his guilty plea today.
Mr. Dzermejko, 65, now of Braddock, was formerly the pastor of Mary, Mother of the Church in Charleroi. He pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.
In January 2013, he was living in an apartment provided by the Diocese of Pittsburgh near Bishop Canevin High School. A detective with the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office got a tip from Microsoft Corp. that someone at that address, who used the online moniker “Lord Winchester Cuthberg Thurston VII” and an email address that included “DAWizard2” had uploaded an image of a naked, pre-pubescent child, according to assistant U.S. attorney Carolyn Bloch.
Agents assigned to the Crimes Against Children Task Force searched the apartment and Mr. Dzermejko admitted to looking at child pornography on the Internet for a decade, Ms. Bloch said. He also told agents that he had traveled “to Thailand on numerous occasions during which he would meet with teenage boys,” said the prosecutor, adding that he kept in touch with some of them through email.
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