Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Priest named in Pennsylvania church sex abuse probe jailed

A Roman Catholic priest from western Pennsylvania is headed to state prison and is the first person sentenced to incarceration as a result of a grand jury investigation that reported hundreds of priests had abused children over seven decades

FILE - The Reverend John T. Sweeney, of Greensburg, waits for his attorney following his arraignment after being charged with sexual abuse on Monday, July 24, 2017 at District Court 10-104. The victim is accusing Sweeney of sexual abuse after an incident occured when the victim was in the fourth grade, 1991-1992, at the St. Margaret Mary Catholic School in Lower Burrell, Westmoreland County, where Sweeney was a pastor.
FILE - The Reverend John T. Sweeney, of Greensburg, waits for his attorney following his arraignment after being charged with sexual abuse on Monday, July 24, 2017 at District Court 10-104. The victim is accusing Sweeney of sexual abuse after an incident occured when the victim was in the fourth grade, 1991-1992, at the St. Margaret Mary Catholic School in Lower Burrell, Westmoreland County, where Sweeney was a pastor.Read moreAntonella Crescimbeni
    by Mark Scolforo, Associated Press, AP_pmn_1
    Published 

A Roman Catholic priest from western Pennsylvania is headed to state prison, the first person sentenced to incarceration as a result of a grand jury investigation that reported hundreds of priests had abused children in the state over seven decades.

The Rev. John Thomas Sweeney was sentenced Friday to 11½ months to five years in state prison and will have to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

He pleaded guilty in July to indecent assault on a minor after being accused of forcing a 10-year-old boy to perform oral sex on him while counseling the fourth-grader about misbehaving on a school bus.

His lawyer says the 76-year-old Sweeney is "profoundly remorseful" for what he did.

Sweeney was taken away in handcuffs after the sentencing in Westmoreland County.