A Catholic priest is revealed to have been caught in a lie after a spy camera was found hidden in the men’s bathroom at his church.
The camera disappeared after being reported to the priest, Father Ysrael Bien of St Francis in Sherwood, Oregon, and it is still missing.
Police are currently investigating.
It was found in April by a 15-year-old boy who noticed an electrical outlet in an odd place – at waist height next to the toilet in a bathroom near the church altar.
When he pulled at a wire, he found a camera and then immediately brought to Bien. The boy said his priest assured him and his parents that police would be called immediately.
But that didn’t happen.
The Oregonian reports that instead of calling police, Bien told investigators that he put the camera in a drawer and then later that day, when he went to retrieve it, it had miraculously disappeared.
He also claimed the camera has no memory card in it when the boy brought it to him.
In the month between the camera’s discovery and the police beginning to investigate, Bien continued to string the family along.
After a while, the parents became suspicious. The teen’s father emailed the priest, church deacon and then the police department for a report, and that was when the actual investigation began.
After being placed on leave by the Archdiocese of Portland, search warrants were served at the church, on Bien’s home, car and computers.
Bien was formally charged as a suspect on Tuesday, with police believing he either placed the camera there or helped the person who did it.
A 35-year-old who was born in the Philippines, he has been outspoken against same-sex marriage ever since he was ordained in the Catholic Church in 2010.
In the past he has spoken against same-sex couples marrying and has told remarried women they have to choose between renouncing their Catholic faith or ‘living as brother and sister’ with their new spouse.