MI--Detroit priest to be sentenced for child porn; SNAP responds

Detroit priest to be sentenced for child porn; SNAP responds

For immediate release Wednesday, January 22

Statement by Barbara Dorris, SNAP Outreach Director, 314-503 0003, [email protected]

A Detroit priest will be sentenced tomorrow for child porn. We hope he gets the maximum sentence.

http://www.freep.com/article/20140121/NEWS05/301210132/Catholic-priest-abuse-child-pornography-Lutheran 

Father Timothy Murray escaped prosecution for sexually assaulting a child - even though he admitted the crimes - due to archaic statute of limitations on these crimes. He has now been convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography and is awaiting sentencing. 

This priest, and the church officials responsible for him, have been given multiple chances to put the safety of the innocent and the vulnerable first but have refused at every turn to do so. Church officials could have chosen to put Murray in a secured independently run treatment center where Murray could have received help and children would have been safe. Instead, they chose to allow him to live in an unsuspecting community, allowing Murray contact with children.

We beg the judge to put Murray behind bars as long as possible. To ignore the pleas of church officials, both Lutheran and Catholic, for leniency. Both groups have been reckless and needlessly endangered children. They claim there have been no new accusations of sexual assault of children ignoring the fact that dozens and dozens of children were harmed in the making of the child pornography in Murray’s possession.

Catholic church officials have betrayed the Detroit community numerous times in their handling of this case. We hope that civil authorities will send a strong message that no one, no matter what his title or what uniform he wears, is above the law.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 15,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by those in positions of authority including priests, nuns, rabbis, bishops, Protestant ministers, Scout leaders, teachers and coaches. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, [email protected])