BOSTON, Aug. 1, 2012—A reverend at a South Boston church was held on high bail today after his arraignment on charges that he possessed and distributed child pornography using a computer in its rectory, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

ANDREW URBANIAK (D.O.B. 6/17/71), a.k.a. ANDRZEJ URBANIAK, was charged in South Boston District Court with one count each of possession of child pornography and distributing images of a child in the nude.

“Child pornography immortalizes the rape and abuse of innocent children,” Conley said. “These charges are serious and they are especially disturbing given the defendant’s position of trust. They reflect sexually explicit images of very young girls who are, legally and morally, incapable of consenting to such exploitation.”

Assistant District Attorney Kate Clayman recommended that Urbaniak be held on $15,000 cash bail and, if he posts that amount, that he be placed on a GPS monitoring device, that he surrender his passport, that he have no contact with children under 16, that he not use the internet, that he allow random checks of his computer, and that he check in with a probation officer twice a week while the case is pending.

Judge Michael Bolden imposed $10,000 cash bail and all of Clayman’s recommended conditions.

Urbaniak was arrested at the Our Lady of Czestochow church yesterday evening. The investigation began in June, while Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Massachusetts Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force were investigating the use of peer-to-peer networks to share and distribute child pornography.

In the course of that investigation, State troopers observed files with names that included terms such as “pre-teen,” “young,” “little,” “pedo,” “pedofilia,” and “lolitas.” The files were hosted by a computer with an Internet Protocol address later linked to Urbaniak’s computer at the Dorchester Avenue rectory.

Troopers downloaded one suspect file and found it to contain a sexually explicit photograph of a child who appeared to be under the age of 14.

Based on the apparent violation of Massachusetts statutes outlawing the possession and distribution of child pornography and the location of the IP address within the City of Boston, State Police provided their findings to detectives of the Boston Police Crimes Against Children Unit. Those detectives obtained a search warrant for computers and file storage devices at the rectory.

Detectives executed that warrant yesterday and recovered a computer that appeared to be in the process of sharing and downloading files. While a comprehensive forensic examination of Urbaniak’s computer has not been completed, a preliminary review suggests that the computer contains multiple images depicting what appear to be images of both child pornography and child sexual abuse, Conley said.

Urbaniak allegedly made incriminating admissions after being read his Miranda rights. He was represented today by attorney Jeffrey Denner.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.