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Eugene

(61,891 posts)
Tue Jul 25, 2017, 07:25 PM Jul 2017

Massachusetts ex-priest (Paul Shanley) convicted in abuse scandal to leave prison

Source: Reuters

#U.S.
JULY 25, 2017 / 4:30 PM / 2 HOURS AGO

Massachusetts ex-priest convicted in abuse scandal to leave prison

Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - A defrocked U.S. Roman Catholic priest who was one of the first to be convicted when the church's worldwide sex abuse scandal was first exposed more than a decade ago is due to be released from prison, a Massachusetts prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Paul Shanley, now 86, was convicted in 2005 of repeatedly raping a boy over a period of years in the 1980s and was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison.

The scandal undermined the church's moral authority and sapped its finances as it paid out billions of dollars in settlements.

"He is now scheduled to be released from that sentence and begin 10 years of supervised probation," Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement. "The commonwealth is not legally permitted to seek that Shanley be confined further without expert testimony that he meets the legal criteria for civil confinement as a sexually dangerous person."

-snip-


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-massachusetts-crime-priest-idUSKBN1AA2N8
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