North Carolina parish’s music minister faces 30 years for child porn
March 12, 2010
The former music minister of a Catholic parish in western North Carolina faces 30 years in prison after he pled guilty to a charge of producing child pornography. According to court documents, Paul Lawrence Berrell, whose work is available from two major publishers of contemporary Catholic hymnals, “coerced a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of the conduct.”
Father John Schneider, the former pastor of the parish, awaits a court date on obstruction of justice charges. Father Schneider allegedly deleted hundreds of images of child pornography from Berrell’s computer.
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Further information:
- Former music minister at St. Eugene Catholic Church cops porn plea (Asheville Citizen-Times)
- North Carolina priest charged with obstructing justice, deleting child porn images (CWN, 6/10/09)
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