Priest Who Blamed Poker for Child Porn Viewing Sentenced

(Photo: Tapinto.net)

In yet another bizarre poker-related story to hit the headlines this week, a New Jersey priest blamed poker losses as his reason for collecting child pornography on his computer.

The Reverend Kevin Gugliotta, of the Holy Spirit Church in Union, New Jersey, who has since been removed from his ministry, told probation officers that ‘he felt God was attacking him when he lost poker tournaments and games, and got "revenge" by collecting the porn’, according to NJ.com.

His defense attorney, Jim Swetz, also confirmed that revenge was the disgraced priest's "reason" for collecting the child pornography at his weekend home.

The Roman Catholic priest plead guilty in a Pennsylvania court in March this year, admitting uploading child pornography to an internet chat room. An earlier report stated that: ‘According to District Attorney Janine Edwards, Gugliotta downloaded child pornography to a personal laptop from his second home in Gouldsboro.”

Although facing a maximum of 7 years imprisonment, Gugliotta was sentenced to only 11½ to 23½ months in the Wayne County jail, with credit for the 10 months he has already served.

As NJ.com reported earlier this year, ‘He had previously been suspended from ministry in 2003 for allegedly molesting a teenage boy in the 1980s. But because the incident occurred when he was still a layman and before he entered the priesthood, the Archdiocese of Newark ruled he could not be punished and quietly reinstated him in 2004.’