Priest named in report jailed for assault on 10-year-old boy
A Roman Catholic priest from western Pennsylvania is headed to state prison, the first person sentenced to incarceration as a result of a grand jury investigation that reported hundreds of priests had abused children in the state over seven decades.
The Rev. John Thomas Sweeney was sentenced Friday to 11½ months to five years in state prison and will have to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
He pleaded guilty in July to indecent assault on a minor after being accused of forcing a 10-year-old boy to perform oral sex on him while counseling the fourth-grader about misbehaving on a school bus.
His lawyer says the 76-year-old Sweeney is "profoundly remorseful" for what he did.