BANGOR — A Maine superior court justice on Tuesday found the former priest at St. George Greek Orthodox Church guilty on four counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

Adam Metropoulos, 52, of Bangor took the stand Tuesday and denied sexually assaulting an altar server in 2006 and 2007 when the boy was 15.

He told Superior Court Justice Ann Murray on the second day of his jury-waived trial that he never had sex with the now 23-year-old. Metropoulos admitted that he touched the victim’s genitals over his pajamas once.

The grown altar server, who now lives in Vermont, testified Monday that Metropoulos repeatedly sexually assaulted him when he was 15. The man is not being identified by the Bangor Daily News because is the victim of a sex crime.

Before the trial began Monday, Metropoulos pleaded guilty to one count each of possession of sexually explicit materials, a felony, and violation of privacy, a misdemeanor.

By pleading guilty, Metropoulos admitted that he had sexually explicit photos of prepubescent children on his computers. He also admitted to surreptitiously photographing a woman taking a shower in his bathroom a few days before his Sept. 15 arrest.

There is no plea deal on the charges, according to Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County.

The victim told the judge Monday that because his family lived in Hancock County, he often spent the night at the rectory located on Fourteenth Street in Bangor. He said the assaults most often took place during Lent because there are additional services in the Orthodox church.

Metropoulos on Tuesday testified that altar servers often spent the night at his home and he often slept with the boys, including the victim. The former priest said that he believed the victim was unaware Metropoulos had touched him because “he never mentioned it.”

The defendant testified that when he told police that he had “a predilection toward children,” he was talking about young girls, not boys.

The child pornography found on Metropoulos’ computer was made up of photos of young girls, Roberts said Monday.

Metropoulos looked different Monday and Tuesday than he did at previous court proceedings. His hair is now shorter and he wore new or different glasses. He also had shaved his graying goatee.

He has been held at the Penobscot County Jail since his arrest, unable to post bail of $50,000 cash or $100,000 surety. Roberts said outside the courthouse after Metropoulos’ first court appearance in September that the high bail was warranted, in part, because of the suspended priest’s 1983 conviction on a sex charge in Michigan when he was 19.

Murray said she would not consider the Michigan conviction in determining Metropoulos’ guilt or innocence.

Metropoulos faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000 on the abuse charges. He faces the same penalties on the possession of child pornography charges, a Class C crime, and up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000 on the violation of privacy charge, a Class D crime.

The time he has been held awaiting trial would be applied to his sentence.

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