Priest’s computer full of sex pics of girls 8 to 14: charge
A 96-YEAR-OLD priest was indicted on charges of hoarding vile photos of underage girls on his computer after folks at his Bronx retirement home spied the creepy collection.
Msgr. Harry Byrne “had dozens of photographs on his computer of girls 8 to 14 years old performing sex acts with men or posing naked,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in announcing Tuesday’s indictment.
“People at the defendant’s residence were subjected to it when they entered his room.”
Byrne, the chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York from 1968-70, was living at the St. John Vianney Center for Retired Priests in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.
He faces 37 charges of possessing a sexual performance by a child, and 37 more of possessing an obscene sexual performance of a child. If convicted, Byrne could spend up to four years in prison.
The probe began five months ago, based on complaints from the home, officials said.
The Archdiocese and the retirement residence were both cooperating with the investigation, according to church spokesman Joseph Zwilling.
Bryne arrived for his arraignment in a green plaid shirt and sat in a wheelchair, and listened to the Bronx Criminal Court proceedings via his hearing aid.
His attorney insisted the accused pervy priest was innocent of all charges.
“Monsignor Byrne has dedicated 72 years to charity and church with an unsullied history,” defense lawyer Marvin Ray Raskin told Judge Robert Neary.
“It is difficult to imagine, at the age of 96, he knowingly understood and is responsible for the content of the subjects on the computer accessible to numerous people.”
But prosecutors said Byrne used internet search engines to locate the pornography online. The illegal images were found in a forensic sweep of the priest’s computer by the NYPD Computer Crimes Squad, officials said.
Raskin said his client, who was released without bail, was battling a variety of health issues.
In a July 2010 blog post, Byrne railed about the Catholic Church’s horrific mishandling of the pedophile priest crisis.
“Bishops ... quietly reassigned miscreants and thereby exponentially multiplied the number of victims,” he wrote. “In the U.S., not one coverup bishop has been been arraigned before church authorities for his part in the scandal.”
Byrne was an activist priest who worked to create affordable housing in the Bronx and Manhattan, and he remained outspoken on church issues even after his retirement.
In 1970, he became the first non-German pastor at St. Joseph’s parish in Manhattan’s Yorkville neighborhood.