Ohio priest who raped boy gets 7 1/2 years

OHIO
Columbus Dispatch

By Lisa Cornwell
Associated Press • Thursday February 13, 2014

CINCINNATI — An Ohio priest convicted of taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia for sex more than two decades ago was sentenced yesterday to seven and a half years in prison.

Robert Poandl was sentenced in federal court in Cincinnati on one count of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent of engaging him in sex. Prosecutors say the priest, from the suburban Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners, took the boy to Spencer, W.Va., in 1991 and raped him while visiting a church there

Poandl, who was convicted in September, continued to maintain his innocence yesterday.

“I have never ever abused anyone, ever,” the 72-year-old priest told the judge prior to sentencing.

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