PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com
LAST UPDATED: Friday, October 24, 2014
A priest at a Chester County parish is facing charges for allegedly possessing and distributing child pornography.
The Chester County District Attorney’s Office said the Rev. Mark Haynes, 55, a priest at Saints Simon and Jude Rectory in Westtown Township, is accused of posting sexually explicit images of a teenage girl on Instagram.
“No matter whether you are rich or poor, young or old, clergy or layperson, the possession of child pornography will lead to arrest, shame and jail,” District Attorney Tom Hogan said in a statement.
The investigation began last month, when law enforcement officials received information from the social media site about naked images of young girls.
Detectives traced the email address associated with the account to Saints Simon and Jude, and eventually to Haynes, prosecutors said.
Investigators also found that Haynes received and posted other images and exchanged lewd emails with an unidentified 14-year-old girl, posing as a 16-year-old girl in the exchanges, prosecutors said.
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