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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
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Former Navy Chaplain Faces Jail for Child Porn

(CN) - A former U.S. lieutenant commander and ordained Catholic priest pleaded guilty to the production and distribution of child pornography, the U.S. Justice Department announced Monday.

John Thomas Matthew Lee, of Millsboro, Del. , who has been in jail since his Nov. 3, 2014 arrest, was court-martialed in 2007 and ultimately convicted on charges of sexually assaulting another Naval officer.

As part of his sentence in that case, Lee was required to register as a sex offender.

Prosecutors said the latest case stemmed from a series of CyberTipline reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. These tips led to a federal investigation during which agents traced to child porn images uploaded to several social networking sites back to accounts Lee held.

A search warrant was executed at Lee's residence, where federal agents found tens of thousands of child pornography on several electronic devices.

Investigators said Lee also used to phone to include several juveniles to send him pornographic images of themselves.

"Lee uploaded at least one of these images to a publicly accessible social media site," a Justice Department statement said. "He also traded other images of child pornography online with other adults."

Lee entered his plea today before Chief U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark in Delaware. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 2, 2016. He faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, and a possible maximum sentence of 30 years. He also faces a fine of $250,000, and the possibility of lifetime supervised release once his prison sentence is served.

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