Verifying a priest suddenly caught another with child pornography – tried to destroy evidence

On Wednesday, the prosecution issued a press release stating that the Panevėžys Regional Prosecutor’s Office had completed the pre-trial investigation and transferred a criminal case to court, in which a priest from the Aukštaitija region was accused of have pornographic photos and videos of minors.

Delphi contacted the prosecutor Ričardas Juozainis, who was in charge of the pre-trial investigation, who said that a young cleric (38 years old) accused of disposing of child pornography felt uncomfortable in April.

According to preliminary data, this clergyman was at the forefront of law enforcement in another investigation into similar crimes. Initially, it was established that a priest from the Diocese of Šiauliai shared pornographic videos and photos with other people through the social media application Messenger. Among the recipients with whom he shared pornography was a parish priest belonging to the diocese of Panevėžys.

Pornography has been piling up since 2017

Prosecutor R. Juozainis revealed that the priest began collecting pornographic material depicting children in 2017.

It turns out that the clergyman tried to destroy the evidence, the prosecutor said the child pornography photos were removed in May. Still, the cleric did not lose the evidence and the experts recovered the data that he had deleted.

A lot of pornographic content was found

During the pre-trial investigation, many pornographic videos and photos were found on the personal computer of the cleric from the Aukštaitija region. After reviewing them, experts from the Office of the Inspector of Journalistic Ethics found that at least 53 electronic files contained pornographic videos and photos depicting children under 18 or depicting people as children.

According to preliminary data, more than ten videos with images of pornographic content representing children were found on the cleric’s personal computer.

It is also reported that 31 photos were found among the records on the priest’s computer, which are included in Interpol’s Child Sexual Exploitation Database.

He knew what he was doing

According to the prosecutor Ričardas Juozainis, who led the pre-trial investigation, the defendant admits his guilt. He said he knew downloading and storing pornographic videos and photos depicting children is prohibited and regrets doing so.

The Curia of the Diocese of Panevėžys was informed about the pre-trial investigation carried out against this cleric.

Dismissed from all duties

As the bishopric of Panevėžys reported to the BNS, the aforementioned cleric is currently removed from all functions.

“This clergyman is relieved of all duties. This will be the case before judgment is passed. After the announcement of the judicial decision, the investigation of this crime will be carried out and all the material will be delivered to the Congregation for the Faith, which will give instructions on the punishment or pronounce the sentence itself,

The Penal Code establishes a fine or prison of up to 2 years for the possession of pornographic content that represents a child or presents a person as a child.