February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Patrick Markey
A retired County Antrim priest has pleaded guilty in Nassau County District Court to sodomizing a mentally impaired teenager in a New York public bathroom.
Former priest Andrew Millar, who is 69, pleaded guilty to third-degree sodomy charges on Thursday and remains free on $15,00 bail until sentencing, according to Ed Grilli, a spokesman for the Nassau County DA’s office.
Grilli said Millar faces up to four years in prison when he is sentenced on Aug. 30. His plea bargain was hammered out with consultation with the victim’s family, Grilli said.
Millar was arrested on May 7 after he was caught molesting a 15-year-old boy with learning difficulties inside a public bathroom on Tobay Beach in Long Island, police said.
The boy had gone alone to use the bathroom and his father had become concerned when he took too long to return. The father found Millar inside the stall with his son and held the ex-priest while the police were called.
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Detectives said Millar had no previous criminal record and called the incident a crime of opportunity rather than a premeditated assault.
Millar’s attorney did not return calls seeking comment. But according to Newsday, he had asked the judge to consider placing Millar in a supervised Catholic archdiocese facility rather than prison.
Ordained in Antrim in 1958, Millar moved to the United States in 1964. He worked in Suffolk and Nassau Counties in Long Island, serving nine parishes before retiring last year. Archdiocese officials said he had been removed from the lodgings where he was staying and admitted to a supervised church facility for treatment.