Sheriff: Bel Air deacon and teacher charged with sexual solicitation of a minor
By Barry Simms, WBAL-TV 11
August 8, 2026
A teacher and church deacon was arrested on two counts of sexual solicitation of a minor, according to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office.
Kenneth Goedeke, 45, of Bel Air, was taken into custody Wednesday after communicating and arranging to meet with an undercover detective whom he believed to be a 15-year-old boy allegedly to engage in sexual activity with the child, the sheriff’s office said.
A judge on Thursday denied bail for Goedeke.
According to the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Goedeke served as a deacon at St. Margaret Parish and he started working at St. Ignatius Church in Hickory in July. Citing law enforcement, the archdiocese said the charges against Goedeke are not related to anyone at the parishes or schools where he served.
Per archdiocesan policy, Goedeke has been removed as a deacon and is suspended him from ministry and employment, pending an investigation.
The archdiocese said Goedeke was ordained as a deacon in 2023 and that he served at St. Patrick Havre de Grace and St. Joan of Arc in Aberdeen before working at St. Margaret Church in Bel Air starting in 2025. Goedeke previously worked at St. Isaac Jogues Church from 2005-2012 and John Carroll High School from 2020-2026.
The archdiocese said a comprehensive background and reference check was completed before Goedeke was hired and before his enrollment as a deacon candidate.
The sheriff seeks parents and caregivers to talk openly with children about the broader dangers posed by trusted adults who misuse their positions and by online predators who target our youth.
“I’m happy we removed another sex offender from the community,” Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler told WBAL-TV 11 News. “It’s a deacon at a local Catholic Church. (I’m) disappointed we keep seeing these men, so far men, trying to have sexual encounters with children. It’s a sickening thing. We will continue these operations to find and identify these people and charge them criminally.”
Anyone who has information, or who may believe they may have been a victim, is asked to reach out to the sheriff’s office via a dedicated email tip line at cactips@harfordsheriff.org.
The archdiocese seeks anyone who knows of child sexual abuse to contact law enforcement, and if clergy or other church personnel are involved, to also call the archdiocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection at 866-417-7469.
Polish court orders Catholic diocese to compensate child sex abuse victim and priest to apologise
A court has ordered a Catholic diocese in Poland to pay 550,000 zloty (€128,250) in compensation to a woman who suffered sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a priest over four decades ago. It has also ruled that the priest himself must publish an apology to his victim and admit his guilt.
The ruling, which can still be appealed, represents one of the largest compensation orders ever issued against Poland’s Catholic church, which has in recent years been hit by a series of revelations of clerical child sex abuse, as well as of negligence by bishops in dealing with such cases.
Ex-Montreal priest Brian Boucher to stay detained on child sex abuse material charges
MONTREAL - A former Montreal priest who has been charged with possessing and accessing child sexual abuse material will stay detained until his next court appearance in November.
MONTREAL - A former Montreal priest who has been charged with possessing and accessing child sexual abuse material will stay detained until his next court appearance in November.
Brian Boucher’s lawyer told a judge today that her client has waived his right to a bail hearing.
The 64-year-old was sentenced in 2019 to eight years in prison for sexually assaulting two boys, after being found guilty in one case and pleading guilty in the other.
The abuse took place at two churches, between 1995 and 1999 in the case of one victim and between 2008 and 2011 in the other.
Boucher was granted statutory release in 2024 and was serving the remainder of his sentence in the community at an approved residential facility before his arrest on the latest charges.
The case returns to court on Nov. 23.
Boucher worked in 10 Montreal-area churches between 1985 and 2015. He was formally stripped of his priesthood in 2020.
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