philly.com
Last updated: Thursday, March 5, 2015, 1:08 AM
Posted: Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 5:11 PM
Jeremy Roebuck, Inquirer Staff Writer
Mark Haynes, 55, previously of SS. Simon and Jude Parish in Westtown, stands charged with trading hundreds of pornographic images of children over Instagram and enticing 25 teenage girls he met online to send him explicit photos of themselves. (AP Photo Chester County District Attorney’s Office) AP
A lawyer for a suspended Chester County priest “emphatically denied” accusations that his client abused three young parishioners as a federal judge ordered the man detained Wednesday on separate child pornography charges.
The mounting allegations against Mark Haynes prompted U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel to reverse a lower court’s decision releasing the priest. Stengel said the allegations, if true, establish a “consistent pattern of predatory conduct toward minor children.”
Haynes, 55, previously of SS. Simon and Jude Parish in Westtown, stands charged with trading hundreds of pornographic images of children over Instagram and enticing 25 teenage girls he met online to send him explicit photos of themselves.
According to court filings, he used the alias “Katie Caponetti” while communicating with the teens online.
But federal prosecutors on Tuesday revealed a host of other allegations that have surfaced since Haynes’ arrest in October, including reports from three accusers who say the priest molested them in the 1990s.
One woman, whose tale was recounted in court filings, said Haynes assaulted her as a teenager during confession at St. Ann’s Parish in Phoenixville. When she told the priest she had performed oral sex on her teenage boyfriend, “Mr. Haynes said she would be absolved of those sins by performing oral sex on him,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella said Wednesday.
Rotella added that additional evidence has surfaced since Haynes’ arrest suggesting he attempted to hide a personal laptop from investigators as well as plans to get together with a girl he had met online to meet at Walt Disney World for sex.
Haynes’ lawyer, Alan J. Tauber dismissed the latest allegations as exaggeration Wednesday.
Haynes, he said, has been “remarkably cooperative” with authorities, even handing over another laptop, a tablet, and two iPods – one engraved with his online moniker “Katie” – despite knowing investigators would find incriminating photos on them.
As for the abuse allegations, Tauber said, Haynes can only say he has never molested anyone. Without knowing the specifics about the three new accusers, “it’s virtually impossible to respond,” Tauber told the judge.
Because Haynes’ new accusers only came forward after his child pornography arrest, investigators have not decided whether they can bring charges. The alleged sexual abuse occurred in the ’90s and appears to fall outside the statute of limitations.
Archdiocesan officials have suspended Haynes, who has worked in eight suburban parishes since his ordination in 1985. They have said they have not received any complaints of sexual abuse involving Haynes prior to his arrest, but are cooperating with the investigation.
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Cops: Priest posed as teen girl, posted child porn online
philly.com
Posted: October 29, 2014
BY STEPHANIE FARR, Daily News Staff Writer farrs@phillynews.com, 215-854-4225
A CHESTER COUNTY priest who has been charged with posting child pornography to Instagram admitted during questioning that he’d once posed as a teenage girl online to engage in a relationship with a 14-year-old girl, according to court documents.
When Chester County detectives received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding two photos of a naked, underage girl that were posted to Instagram in April, they tracked the IP address to Ss. Simon and Jude Parish in West Chester.
Believing a student at the parish may have posted the photos, detectives interviewed the pastor who informed investigators that the email address associated with the Instagram account in question, ” irishwit2@gmail.com,” actually belonged to the Rev. Mark Haynes, 55, a priest who lived at the rectory, prosecutors said.
When questioned by police on Thursday, Haynes admitted that he had received about 100 images of child porn on Instagram and had sent about 50 pornographic images of children to others, according to court documents.
Haynes referred to the images as ” ‘lascivious pictures or videos of minors,’ ” police said.
He then allegedly admitted to detectives that in 2010, he joined a dating site pretending to be a 16-year-old girl and began communicating with a 14-year-old girl.
That unsuspecting teen sent Haynes about 10 videos of her masturbating, police said. Haynes told authorities that he was “addicted to viewing the images” but that he had purged his electronic devices of all child porn, according to court documents.
Authorities confiscated Haynes’ electronic equipment on Thursday for forensic examination, and they are still trying to determine the identity of the 14-year-old girl in question, prosecutors said.
Haynes was charged with dissemination of child pornography, possession of child pornography and criminal use of a communications facility. He was remanded to the Chester County Prison after failing to post $200,000 bail.
“No matter whether you are rich or poor, young or old, clergy or layperson, the possession of child pornography will lead to arrest, shame and jail,” Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said in a statement.
According to a statement from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Haynes has served in parishes in all four of Philadelphia’s suburban counties since he was ordained in 1985.
The Archdiocese has placed Haynes on administrative leave, and he is no longer living at Ss. Simon and Jude Parish.