English priest sentenced on child pornography charges
April 01, 2014
A priest who served as department secretary for Catholic education and formation at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has received an eight-month suspended prison sentence for child pornography charges, according to This Is Oxfordshire, a site operated by area newspapers.
Father Timothy Gardner, a 42-year-old Dominican, served as religious education advisor to Catholic Education Service, the bishops’ education agency, as well as governor of a Catholic girls’ school in Oxford.
Father Gardner, according to media reports, admitted downloading over 5,000 images of child pornography. This Is Oxfordshire reported that he also admitted “making hundreds of indecent images of children.”
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Further information:
- Pervert governor's 5,000 child images (This Is Oxfordshire)
- Church's education adviser admits child-abuse image crimes (The Tablet)
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Posted by: feedback -
Apr. 01, 2014 2:49 PM ET USA
What's weird is not that individuals like this one exist, but that he was picked to be a Catholic school governor and a religious education advisor.
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Posted by: normnuke -
Apr. 01, 2014 11:41 AM ET USA
Child pornography cannot be distinguished from the utterly vile practices of child sex slavery. How will Fr. Gardner's bishop respond to having him in the midst of Catholic parents?
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Posted by: 1Jn416 -
Apr. 01, 2014 11:29 AM ET USA
I find this quite remarkable in terms of the lightness of the sentence. For crimes that sound very similar (production! of child pornography), Rev. Shawn Ratigan of Kansas City, MO received 50 years in Federal prison, while in England Rev. Gardner receives an eight month suspended sentence. While I think Fr. Ratigan's sentence is too severe, Fr. Gardner's is much too light, hardly a slap on the wrist.
