US priest sentenced to 50 years for child porn

A priest whose case led to a criminal conviction against his bishop will likely spend the rest of his life in a federal prison after being sentenced to 50 years for producing or trying to produce child pornography.
The Rev Shawn Ratigan pleaded guilty yesterday in August of last year to five counts one for each of his five young victims. He was charged in May 2011 after police received a flash drive from his computer containing hundreds of images of children, most of them clothed, with the focus on their crotch areas.
Ratigan, 47, apologised to his victims and their families before learning his punishment and asked the judge for the statutory minimum sentence of 15 years for each count, with the terms to all run at the same time.

"Prison is hell," Ratigan said. "I know I deserve 15 years, but 50 years? Come on, I don't think so."
His public defender, Robert Kuchar, argued that Ratigan's offences weren't as bad as those of other child pornographers whose photos are more graphic and often include images of the victims participating in sexual acts.
Assistant US Attorney Katharine Fincham described Ratigan as a serial sex offender who was arrogant and had a sense of entitlement he thought would keep him from getting caught. She said he deserved the long sentence because he violated the trust of his victims and their families by using his position as a clergyman to get close enough to them to take illicit photos of the children.

A computer technician working on Ratigan's laptop in December 2010 found hundreds of troubling images of young girls and reported it to officials with the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Instead of turning the photos over to police or reporting suspicions about Ratigan, Bishop Robert Finn sent him away for psychiatric evaluation and later ordered him to stay at a convent where he could say Mass for the sisters and stay away from children.
The photos were given to police in May 2011 after Ratigan violated Finn's orders.
Jackson County prosecutors charged Finn and the diocese in October 2011 with one misdemeanour charge each of failing to report suspected child abuse, because of the five-month delay between when the photos were found on Ratigan's computer and when the diocese reported him to police.