PENNSYLVANIA
WPXI
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — The Vatican has defrocked a Pittsburgh-area priest who was already removed from public ministry since 2009 after an allegation of past child sex abuse and later pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
Sixty-seven-year-old David Dzermejko (jer-MAY’-koh) is serving a three-year sentence at a federal prison hospital in Massachusetts. He was sentenced last year and indicted on the child pornography charges in 2013.
Dzermejko was the longtime pastor of Mary, Mother of the Church parish in Charleroi when he was removed from active ministry.
He never was criminally charged in the alleged abuse, which dated to the 1980s and involved another parish. The allegations surfaced in 2009 when a couple accused Dzermejko of molesting their son, who had since died.
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