WINTER PARK, Fla. – Video has been released of the interview with an Orange County teacher and Episcopal priest who was arrested last month on allegations of traveling to have sex with a child.
Brian Shriner, 46, a teacher at the Geneva School in Winter Park, told deputies he was doing research for a book and that no one else knew he was writing it.
Detectives stepped in and, after a month-long investigation, convinced Shriner to meet them at a residence he thought was the girl's home in Winter Springs, where he was arrested back in June.
In the video, Shriner is dressed in a blue shirt and black shorts as he waits for the deputy to interview him.
"I realize the level of stupidity of what I've done today," Shriner tells the detective. "I've never touched a child in that way."
Deputies also ask Shriner why his wedding ring was off when he was going to meet the girl. Shriner told them it doesn't fit and sometimes it just falls off.
He also said his intentions weren't to have sex with the girl, even though he told the undercover detective that he had multiple partners and was having an affair.
"I even said, 'I can't do this,'" Shriner told the detective. The detective responded, "Then you said you could."
Deputies said the teenage girl that Shriner was originally talking to on May 17 over the Internet told her parents, who then reported it to authorities.
Watch Local 6 for more on this story.