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Priest arrested on porn charge

Police have arrested a 54-year-old Episcopal priest after they allegedly discovered child pornography on a computer bought and used by his Montgomery County, Pa., church.
Written by Luke Reiter, Contributor

Police have arrested a 54-year-old Episcopal priest after they allegedly discovered child pornography on a computer bought and used by his Montgomery County, Pa., church.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office identified the man as Robert K. Orr, the rector of the All Hallows Episcopal Church in Wyncote, Pa., just outside Philadelphia. Orr was charged with sexual abuse of children, a felony.

Orr was arraigned before District Justice Loretta A. Leader and held on $50,000 cash bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 14.





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In an affidavit filed with a Montgomery County Court, county detective Katharine Hart said that, after obtaining a warrant to search the rector's office of the church, she and other police began to look through the files on the church-owned computer.

"On that computer were a number of pictures which depicted nude boys many of whom were prepubescent," the affidavit said. "Several of these pictures depicted the boys, ranging in age from about 6 years old to about 17 years old engaged in sex acts with other boys or with men." There were also several pictures of young women, some engaged in sex acts, according to Hart's affidavit.

After being arrested, Rector Orr denied that he willfully obtained the explicit photographs, according to the affidavit. But when one detective logged onto the AOL account, he searched Orr's "Check mail you sent" file, and discovered several e-mails with "attachments which were pictures of prepubescent boys nude in sexual positions," the affidavit said.

After witnessing the detectives printing the e-mail messages, Orr, who used the screen name "UkelBob," allegedly acknowledged his possession. In a second statement. Orr admitted that he had a problem, but "never acted on it," the affidavit said.

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