Former altar boy writes comic book about clerical sexual misconduct

Published: 2006-07-25

LONDON (CNS) -- A former altar boy who says he was abused by a priest has written a comic book to help to educate churchgoers about clerical sexual misconduct. The man says that as a child he suffered a series of indecent assaults at the hands of John Lloyd, a former parish priest in Treforest, who was sentenced to eight years in jail in 1998 for a series of sexual offenses. Writing under the pseudonym Martin O'Shea, the author uses his own experiences to unveil a "perception of scenarios" likely to occur following a complaint of abuse. In the comic book, "The Least Among Us," O'Shea and illustrator Tony Wright tell a story of how a fictional bishop tries to deal with a clerical abuse scandal. The comic, which will be published by Ascendant Press Aug. 21, follows the classic comic strip genre. Some of the cartoons show priests breaking the news to the bishop that a priest has been accused, and others show the bishop taking hostile questions from journalists at a press conference.

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