A former nurse's aide who was sexually abused in boyhood by a priest now stands accused of possessing computer discs that bear child pornography, including at least one image of children 10 to11 years old.
Paul Hearty was arrested in early March. Monroe County sheriff's deputies said they found him carrying a blue bag with discs containing the child porn images. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, and a grand jury is considering 26 charges for which Hearty would face four years each if convicted.
According to children's Internet safety advocate and child porn opponent Parry Aftab, children who are abused sexually often become child porn collectors or child molesters.
"It happens all the time," Aftab tells AVNOnline.com. "It's the same way that [child molestation] survivors tend to molest. When you look at most sex offenders, you find a huge percentage of them were molested as kids. And a lot of them, if they're not actively molesting, will look for images."
In 1997, Hearty accused a Rochester priest, Rev. William Lum, of sexually molesting him in the rectory of Our Lady of Mercy Church. Lum eventually pleaded guilty to the crime.
"A lot of molesters, when you bring them to court, explain they were molested when they were children, too," Aftab says. "Most of the people who look for child porn may not be offending child molesters; most hopefully don't have the courage to cross that line."
Association of Sites for the Advancement of Child Protection executive director Joan Irvine says the Hearty case is a prime example of child sex abuse's repercussions.
"A man when he was a child was abused by priests is now abusing other children by viewing and possessing child pornography," she says. "Were the priests abused as children? Is there another generation of children who abuse children when they grow up? It's so sad to hear about such damage to children and society."
Hearty has pleaded not guilty in the child porn possession case, according to WHAM-TV News in Rochester, and has refused comment to the press.
However, the station reported that a week after Hearty's arrest, another priest, the Rev. Michael Volino, also was charged with possessing child porn on his computer. Hearty reportedly mentioned Volino while telling police he kept tabs on Lum, but police have yet to find any connection between the cases, the station said.
Hearty was fired from his nurse's aide job at Monroe Community Hospital following his arrest. He had been on medical leave since September 2004. Previously, he was fired in 1995 as a residential aid at ARC of Monroe County, after he was cited for hanging around students – which he claimed was because he was compelled to help teenagers because he was a victim – at McQuaid High School after hours, according to the WHAM story.
Investigators examined Monroe Community Hospital computers but found none of them were used to download any child porn images, according to published reports.
The 26 counts will be presented to a grand jury. If convicted, Hearty could spend up to four years in prison for each count and would have to register as a sex offender.
