Feds indict Pa. priest on child-porn charges

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Catholic priest has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges he possessed thousands of images of child pornography that county detectives said they found when searching his office and residence last month after a church employee reported seeing the cleric viewing an image of a naked boy on his office computer.

Rev. Bartley Sorensen, 62, has been suspended by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, which is cooperating in the investigation.

Sorensen’s defense attorney did not immediately return a call for comment today on the two-count grand jury indictment charging the priest with receiving child pornography on his computer and possessing child pornography.

Allegheny County detectives arrested Sorensen on Dec. 10, after a parish employee called a church child abuse hotline after allegedly seeing Sorensen viewing child pornography on his computer the previous day.