Ex-priest Shanley convicted on four counts of child sex abuse

Published: 2005-02-07

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (CNS) -- A jury found laicized priest Paul R. Shanley guilty on all four counts of child sex abuse, including rape. The Feb. 7 verdict could mean a life sentence for a man who has been one of the main figures in the clergy child sex abuse scandal that erupted in the Boston Archdiocese in 2002 and spread throughout the U.S. church. Shanley was found guilty on two counts of raping a child and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child. All the charges involved one person, who said he was repeatedly abused by Shanley in the 1980s. The testimony in the child rape trial ended Feb. 3 with the jury left to decide the validity of his 27-year-old accuser's recall of the abuse events he said involved Shanley, now 74. The accuser, who asked that his name not be used during the trial, testified that he had been repeatedly raped and molested in the 1980s but repressed his memories of the events until the clergy sex abuse scandal revived them. There were four men accusing Shanley when prosecutors indicted him in 2002, but the prosecution dropped the cases involving three as they either refused to testify or could not be found. The lone accuser received $500,000 from the Boston Archdiocese last year to settle his civil suit involving Shanley. The defense based its case on debunking the accuser's repressed memory testimony, saying he made up the events for monetary gain.

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