DECATUR--DeKalb District Attorney J. Tom Morgan said that the assistance of the Catholic Church was critical in the July extradition of Father Anton Mowat back to Georgia possibly to serve more time in jail.

Catholic leaders in England and in Atlanta provided the information to DeKalb County, where Mowat is on probation in a child molestation case, Morgan said, that led investigators to be able to find and extradite him.

After serving 15 months of a six-year prison sentence in DeKalb County, he was placed on probation and deported. DeKalb County now will bring him before Superior Court Judge Michael Hancock, Morgan said, alleging that he has failed to keep the court informed of his whereabouts, was traveling under an assumed name, had not received required treatment as a sex offender and acted inappropriately with a minor boy.

The court could decide to return Mowat to jail for as long as until 2005. He is in jail pending a probation revocation hearing that will be held when witnesses from England are able to come to DeKalb County.

Mowat, who is suspended from priestly ministry, pleaded guilty in 1990 to four counts of child molestation involving four altar boys he was supervising while a visiting parochial vicar at Corpus Christi Church, Stone Mountain in 1986-87.