Thomas Roberts, an openly gay CNN reporter who used to anchor an afternoon segment of Headline News, spoke out on Monday against a judge's decision to allow a former Roman Catholic preist who molested Roberts and others to serve the rest of his sentence on home detention after just 18 months in jail.

A lawyer for Jerome F. Toohey Jr., known as Father Jeff, had asked the judge to release his client either on probation or home detention because the conditions of his confinement at the county jail are "extremely tough." The former chaplain of Calvert Hall College High School in Towson has been kept in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for his safety because of threats made against him.

Roberts, a former Calvert Hall College High School student whom Toohey was convicted of abusing in 1987 and 1988 after the then-teenager sought counseling from the priest, told the judge that dealing with the sexual abuse that began when he was a sophomore has been difficult for him as well.

"I was let down by a trusted system years ago," Roberts said of the Roman Catholic Church. "I fear today that I will be let down again. This was a lenient sentence."

Robert later called the judge's decision "disappointing."

Although the charges filed in May 2005 against Toohey covered alleged abuse between 1987 and 1989 when Roberts was a student at the Catholic boys' school, the charge to which the former priest pleaded guilty covered abuse only between September 1987 and March 1988. Charges involving later alleged abuse were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.