6,000 child pornography photos found on retired St. Louis priest’s electronics, court documents say

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - A retired priest from St. Louis pleaded guilty to federal charges of possession of child pornography.

According to court documents, James Beighlie, 72, admitted in court that colleagues of his at the Congregation of the Mission in St. Louis found compromising images of him on a church printer on May 17, 2021. The church launched its own investigation and called the FBI when videos of minors performing sex acts were found on electronics used by Beighlie.

Investigators found 6,000 images of child sexual abuse on one computer, including 3,000 photos of child pornography and 2,992 images of child erotica. Another computer had 236 photos and 40 videos of child sexual abuse.

Beighlie is set to be sentenced on January 10.