Catholic priest gets nearly 16-year sentence in child porn case

MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

By Patricia Montemurri
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Nonpracticing Catholic priest Timothy Murray, 63, of Novi was sentenced today to 15 years and 8 months in federal prison for possessing and distributing child pornography.

“You should not be in contact with minors,” U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said at Murray’s sentencing. “The sentence that this court will impose will make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“This will make you close to 80 years old” when the sentence is up, said Roberts and “remove you from society.”

In 2004, the Archdiocese of Detroit removed Murray as pastor of St. Edith parish in Livonia when it was learned that he had molested a 13-year-old boy at another parish in the mid-1980s. But Murray, who has admitted he molested the boy, could not be prosecuted at the time because of the statute of limitations.

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