Former Navy chaplain gets 30 years in child pornography case

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A former Navy chaplain and Catholic priest who was convicted of sexually assaulting a Naval Academy midshipman years ago has been sentenced to 30 years in prison on federal child pornography charges.


Fifty-one-year-old John Thomas Matthew Lee of Millsboro, Delaware, was sentenced Wednesday.

Lee's sentencing had been delayed several times after his attorney complained that prosecutors were seeking the maximum 50-year sentence although they had said they would ask for about 25 years behind bars.

Lee pleaded guilty in 2015 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.