DOVER, Del. — A federal judge has again postponed the child pornography sentencing of a former Navy chaplain and Catholic priest who was convicted of sexually assaulting a Naval Academy midshipman years ago.
Tuesday’s scheduled sentencing for 50-year-old John Thomas Matthew Lee of Millsboro has been postponed until February. The latest in a series of sentencing delays came after Lee’s attorney complained that prosecutors now want the maximum 50-year sentence, after saying they would ask for about 25 years behind bars.
Lee pleaded guilty in November to producing and distributing child pornography. Authorities say he uploaded child pornography to social networking sites and persuaded several children to send him pornographic images of themselves.
Lee served prison time after a 2007 court-martial on charges including forcible sodomy and failing to tell a sex partner he was HIV-positive.
Lee, who registered as a sex offender in Delaware in 2013, was arrested in 2014 after a multistate investigation.
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, the largest advocacy group on behalf of victims of clerical abuse in the country, last year called for Lee to receive a long-term prison sentence.
“Lee also worked in Washington D.C.,” the SNAP statement said.
“We hope he’s given the maximum sentence. And we hope that every single current and former Catholic church employee and member who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes will call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.”
“His selfishness was so strong, he was willing to destroy the lives of others to make himself happy,” prosecutor Marine Major Derek Brostek said back in 2007, according to The Washington Post.
As early as 2004, Lee reportedly used his rank and standing as a chaplain and Catholic priest to facilitate sexual interactions with a minimum of three service members. In one case, a troubled young man sought his counsel. Lee invited the man back to his apartment following dinner, where the two drank scotch and beer. All of a sudden, Lee started masturbating.
Lee then came on to the man, at which point the man, now an ensign, told Lee firmly that he wasn’t interested. In response, Lee reportedly said, “It’s all right, it’s all right.”
