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Priest arrested on child porn charges

Posted at 7:36 PM, Aug 02, 2012
and last updated 2012-08-02 21:01:10-04

By the CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) - A South Boston priest has been placed on administrative leave after his arrest on child pornography charges, which allegedly involved the use of a parish rectory computer.

Rev. Andrew Urbaniak, pastor of Our Lady of Czestochowa, is barred from functioning as a priest and was arraigned Wednesday after detectives uncovered pornographic images of young girls on his computer.

The children are thought to be between the ages of 8 and 10, police said.

When detectives entered the rectory on Tuesday, they apparently found the computer was in the process of downloading material from a peer-to-peer network, according to prosecutors.

The nature of that material is not clear.

Urbaniak, 39, was arrested Tuesday afternoon after a two-month police investigation of peer-to-peer networks, which involved state troopers assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He is charged with one count of possession of child pornography and one count of distributing images of a child in the nude.

During the investigation, authorities said they noticed files with names that included phrases such as "pre-teen," "young," "little," "pedo," "pedofilia" and "lolitas."

The files were hosted by a computer that was eventually linked to the computer at the Dorchester Avenue rectory, authorities said.

"These charges are serious, and they are especially disturbing given the defendant's position of trust," said Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. "They reflect sexually explicit images of very young girls who are, legally and morally, incapable of consenting to such exploitation."

Urbaniak is being held on $10,000 cash bail. Once released, he is required to wear a GPS monitoring device, surrender his passport, be barred from Internet use and have no contact with children younger than 16.

Urbaniak has not been charged with enticing a child, and no victims have come forward.

His attorney, Jeffrey Denner, said it is their "intention to assess and obtain all the evidence."

"The whole situation is very disquieting and very saddening," he added. "We are obviously treating it with the gravity and respect it deserves."