Beighlie’s attorney had asked that the priest be allowed to remain in Dittmer. But Judge Matthew T. Schelp of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, citing the gravity of Beighlie’s crimes, recommended that Beighlie be sent instead to the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, to carry out his sentence, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Ordained in 1979, Beighlie had served as associate pastor at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in St. Louis for approximately two years until May 2021, provincial spokesman Chris Duggan told CNA.
In his plea agreement, Beighlie admitted that on May 17, 2021, while he was working at the Congregation of the Mission in St. Louis, colleagues found compromising images of him on a church printer, the DOJ reported. As a result, the Congregation of the Mission Western Province opened an internal investigation, during which Beighlie was removed from his position as associate pastor at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in St. Louis and placed in a monitored environment, the province said.
Based on the results of the internal investigation, the province notified law enforcement. According to the DOJ, about 6,000 images of child sexual abuse material were found on one computer; another computer had 236 images and 40 videos containing child sexual abuse material. Several thousand of the images were contained in two PowerPoint presentations created by Beighlie, the DOJ says.
“While the circumstances surrounding this sentencing are very saddening to us, we respect the judge’s decision and have cooperated with law enforcement throughout the process,” said provincial superior Vincentian Father Patrick McDevitt in a Jan. 11 statement.
“Exploitation of children through pornography is a grave sin and has no place in society.”
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