Police recently arrested a Mahwah NJ priest accused of distributing child pornography from his PA vacation home.

The suspect is a 54-year-old Mahwah resident who serves as a Roman Catholic priest at Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church in Union, New Jersey. According to law enforcement officials, the suspect uploaded numerous illicit sexual images of minors while vacationing in Lehigh Township, PA this summer.

Authorities in Wayne County, Pennsylvania opened an investigation into the suspect after receiving a tip about the alleged sex crimes. Investigators eventually determined that the IP address used to upload the child pornography was registered to the suspect.

Toms River NJ police arrested the suspect and placed him in custody at the Ocean County Jail. He is currently awaiting extradition from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, where he has been charged with a number of sexual offenses.

The suspect faces multiple criminal charges, including 40 counts of sexual abuse of children, 20 counts of dissemination of child pornography, and 20 counts of possession of child pornography. Additionally, the suspect has been charged with being a fugitive from justice because he allegedly failed to turn himself in to police after being told that he had been criminally charged in connection with the child pornography.

The suspect has already been removed from his Union NJ parish, according to church officials.

For more information about this case, see the NJ.com article, “N.J. Priest Charged with Possession of Child Pornography.”