More Charges Filed Against Vicar Accused of Posing Online as Teenage Girl

By James Boyle:

A new charge of child exploitation has been added to the indictment against a formal parochial vicar accused of posing online as a teenage girl to entice underage girls to send explicit pictures, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced Wednesday.

The additional indictment was filed March 12, U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger announced.

Mark Haynes, a former parochial Vicar, is charged with using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct, transfer of obscene material to a minor, distribution of child pornography, possession of child pornography, and destruction or concealment of evidence.

Haynes is a former priest at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Doylestown.

According to court documents, around 2010, Haynes posed as a 16-year old girl named “Katie” on a teen dating website. As “Katie,” Haynes would meet minor girls online and allegedly request that they take and send sexually explicit pictures. Haynes is also charged with distributing other images and videos of children being sexually assaulted over the Internet in 2014, again posing as “Katie.”

Haynes was originally arrested in October 2014 by Chester County detectives on charges of possession of child pornography following a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. After his release on $200,000 bail, an indictment was filed by the Department of Justice in February 2015 and Haynes was taken into federal custody, according to the Morning Call.

A federal magistrate judge’s decision to release Haynes on $5,000 bail was quickly reversed one day later by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel, who ordered Haynes toremain in prison until his trial, according to the Delaware County Times.

Following his initial arrest, three parishioners came forward with allegations that Haynes molested them in the 1990s, according to reports. One victim says she was forced to perform oral sex on Haynes while in a confessional booth at a Phoenixville church.

Since his ordination in 1985, Haynes has served at multiple parishes in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties, including:

• St. Ann, Phoenixville
• Saints Simon and Jude Parish, West Chester
• Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Doylestown
• St. John of the Cross, Roslyn
• Our Lady of Good Counsel, Southampton
• St. Pius X, Broomall
• Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Morton
• Annunciation B.V.M., Havertown

If convicted of all charges, Haynes faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison with a maximum sentence of life, possible fines, and at least five years up to a lifetime of supervised release.