Priest Gets Eight Months for Child Porn

(Barnstable, Massachusetts) The sentenced handed down in this case cannot be fairly classified as punishment nor rehabilitation nor deterrence.

From Boston.com:

A Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to storing hundreds of images of child pornography on his computer and coercing a 16-year-old boy into filming himself performing a sex act was sentenced Monday to eight months in jail.

Prosecutors had recommended a three-year prison sentence for the Rev. Stephen A. Fernandes, 55, who was suspended as pastor of Our Lady Fatima Church in New Bedford.

Bristol District Attorney Paul Walsh criticized Superior Court Judge Robert Kane for handing Fernandes a lighter sentence. He will serve the eight-month sentence at a jail on Martha's Vineyard and is eligible for parole in three months.

"The court may see this as a victimless crime, but I don't," Walsh said in a written statement. "When I look at the terrible pictures of more than 500 kids, I see 500 victims."

For pleading guilty to possession and distribution of child pornography, Fernandes gets three months on Martha's Vineyard which is probably not considered hard time. And, nobody is happy with the ruling except Fernandes and Judge Kane.

Am I the only person that believes the state of Massachusetts has an unusually high tolerance for criminal sex offenders? Just relying on my memory, it seems that sexual predators and pedophiles are consistently treated leniently by Massachusetts courts.