Iowa priest sentenced for child porn, Illinois priest for sex abuse

Published: 2004-01-28

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In mid-January an Iowa priest pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography, an Illinois priest admitted criminal sexual abuse of three young boys, and a Virginia priest pleaded no contest to assault charges. The Iowa priest, Father Richard Poster, was sentenced Jan. 22 to one year and one day in prison after he pleaded guilty to reception of child pornography, a federal offense. Father Poster, former Davenport diocesan director of liturgy and associate publisher of the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Messenger, was arrested in December 2002 when church officials discovered child pornography on a computer he was using. In Illinois, Father Fred Lenczycki, 59, pleaded guilty Jan. 12 to three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse stemming from his 1984 molestation of three boys between the ages of 10 and 12. The Joliet diocesan priest, who is barred from ministry or presenting himself publicly as a priest, was sentenced to five years in prison. In Goochland, Va., Father John E. Leonard, 65, pleaded no contest Jan. 13 to two counts of assault and battery for alleged incidents involving two teenage boys at a seminary in the Richmond Diocese in the 1970s. He is to be sentenced March 30.

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