A South Boston catholic priest has been placed on administrative leave after his arrest on child pornography charges, which allegedly involved the use of a parish rectory computer.
Police has arrested 39-year-old Polish catholic priest Andrew Urbaniak, at Our Lady of Czestochowa, a Polish church in the Archdiocese of Boston, two days ago.
Catholic priest Andrew Urbaniak was arraigned in South Boston District Courton one count of possession of child pornography and one charge of distributing images of a child in the nude.
According to the Boston Police Department, after obtaining a search warrant, detectives seized Andrew Urbaniak’s computer, where pornographic images of girls between the ages of 8 and 10 were found. But Roman priest Andrew Urbaniak pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.
Roman priest Andrew Urbaniak arrested on child porn charges, South Boston
When police officers entered the rectory on Tuesday, they apparently found the Andrew Urbaniak’s computer was in the process of downloading material from a peer-to-peer network. The nature of that material is still not clear.
Catholic priest in South Boston, Andrew Urbaniak has been arrested Tuesday afternoon after a 2-month police investigation of child pornography charges, which involved state troopers assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He is charged with one count of possession of child pornography and one count of distributing images of a child girls in the nude.
The district attorney’s office said that police detectives had been investigating Andrew Urbaniak’s activities on the Internet, observing files with names such as pre-teen, pedo and lolitas, hosted by an IP address linked to catholic priest Andrew Urbaniak’s computer at the parish’s rectory. When they recovered Urbaniak’s computer, it appeared to be in the process of sharing and downloading files.
South Boston priest charged with possession of children pornography
Andrew Urbaniak, emigrated from Poland 14 years ago, and has been the priest at Our Lady of Czestochowa Church in South Boston for 4 years.
‘ This is a very decent man charged with indecent activities ‘, said Jeffrey Denner, the attorney who represented Andrew Urbaniak at his arraignment in South Boston District Court, where he was ordered held on 10 thousand dollars cash bail.
Andrew Urbaniak belongs to an order of Franciscan priests with headquarters in Poland. Arrested priest has been placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese, but it was unknown yesterday if his order in Poland has made any moves to expel him.
Zdzislaw Marecki, president of the Polish American Citizen Club, said Andrew Urbaniak impressed church members by heading up fund-raisers and volunteer projects to beautify the church and make much-needed repairs. After arriving at Our Lady of Czestochowa, Urbaniak converted a little-used room into a bright space for concerts, meetings, and dinners.
Andrew Urbaniak, who became a naturalized United States citizen 2 years ago, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. The priest is scheduled for a probable cause hearing on Aug. 31.
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