Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Ex-priest sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison for raping boy By DENISE LAVOIE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON — Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, whose crimes shook the Roman Catholic Church, was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison on child rape charges Tuesday to a burst of applause from some of the many who accused him of molesting them. As a wobbly, 74-year-old Shanley was led away in handcuffs, one man called out mockingly, “Goodbye!” Shanley will be eligible for parole after eight years. He was sent away despite warnings from some inmate advocates that the notorious child molester would be a marked man behind bars and that prison could amount to a death sentence. Judge Stephen Neel condemned the former priest for using his revered status to prey on a little boy. “It is difficult to imagine a more egregious misuse of trust and authority,” he said Shanley, once known for a being a hip “street priest” who reached out to troubled children and homosexuals, was convicted last week of repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at his church during the 1980s. His accuser, now a 27-year-old firefighter, said Shanley would pull him from Sunday morning catechism classes and molest him starting when he was 6 and continuing for six years. He said his repressed memories of the abuse came flooding back three years ago as the scandal unfolded. In a statement read in court by a prosecutor, the accuser said: “I want him to die in prison, whether it’s of natural causes or otherwise. However he dies, I hope it’s slow and painful.” Shanley’s lawyer, Frank Mondano, asked the judge to allow him to serve his sentence in a county jail rather than a more violent state prison. The judge refused. Another notorious pedophile priest, John Geoghan, was beaten and strangled in a Massachusetts prison in 2003, allegedly by a fellow inmate. Mondano said the prosecution’s case was built on “vilification, half-truths and lies.” He plans to appeal. Shanley became a central figure in CHARLES KRUPA/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, a central figure in the Boston Archdiocese clergy sex abuse scandal, is led from-court in handcuffs following his sentencing in Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, Mass., on Tuesday. Shanley was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison for raping a boy repeatedly in the 1980s. the sex scandal in Boston after plaintiffs’ attorneys forced the church to release his personnel records. The documents indicated he was transferred from parish to parish despite allegations of abuse. The scandal quickly spread across the globe and helped bring down Boston’s archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law. More than two dozen people have accused Shanley of molesting them, but this was the only case to result in criminal charges. The victim’s wife told Shanley in court: “No words can ever explain my disgust for you. You are a coward. You hid behind God.” “You robbed my little boy of his innocence,” the accuser’s father said. “You destroyed his understanding of good and bad and right and wrong.” Prosecutors had recommended a life sentence. But District Attorney Martha Coaldey said the 12- to 15-year term essentially amounts to a death sentence given Shanley’s age and health. School board allows Bible classes to continue THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STAUNTON, Va. — The Staunton School Board decided Monday night to allow Bible classes to continue this year for elementary school students, despite staunch objections from a board member who also is a pastor. “I think WRE is wrong for our school children,” said the Rev. Edward Scott, who serves on the board. “It belongs in the homes and in the churches.” The board voted 5-1 to conduct a yearlong review of the program to determine if the needs of both the students going to the classes and those who opt out are being met. juuk j/aivma <UAtu uk school board to eliminate or modify the program, saying the children who opt out are stigmatized and have little to do while waiting for the other children to return to class. Several hundred attended Monday night’s meeting, and much of the crowd gave the board a standing ovation after the vote. Scott argued that the lessons should be. offered after school, and that studying the issue for a year is a way to put off dealing with it. “My feeling is at the end of the year we’ll find ourselves revisiting this and that at the end of the year, we will have even less will to do what is right for the children left behind,” Scott said. The weekly classes have oeen a tradition in otaunton and some other school districts in western Virginia for more than 60 years. Supporters of the classes say they teach children moral values. More than 400 people showed up to weigh in on the issue at a contentious school board meeting in December, and more than 1,000 signed a petition urging the school board to keep the classes. The Bible classes began in Virginia in 1929 after a majority of students failed a simple Bible test. The lessons were conducted inside public school classrooms until 1948, when the Supreme Court ruled that the lessons Violated the principle of separation of church and state. A few years later, the court revisited the issue and approved classes held away from school premises. Most communities have ended the classes, but the 20 school divisions that have kept the classes generally stretch along Interstate 81 in western Virginia, known to some as the state’s “Bible Belt.” In the Staunton area, more than 80 percent of first-, second- and third graders participate. Board member Angie Whitesell said Monday’s motion serves the best interest of all the students. “My conscience tells me this community needs this program, and we need to keep it,” Whitesell said. “We also need a program Mr the children who are not released." --- i I, I. i ■ ■ ■ .r. l CASEY TEMPLETON/THE NEWS LEADER Attorney Gil Davis, left, speaks with Jack Hinton during the Staunton School Board meeting Monday at Shelburne Middle School in Staunton, Va., before the board decided to keep Weekday Religious Education in city elementary schools. ★ ★★★Auction 2005 ★★★★ ♦ * ★ Annual BCM Auction * ^ (raising money for summer missions) ★ Russell House Ballroom Thursday, February 17th ★ ★ Doors open at 7:30 pm ★ ★ Auction starts at 8:00 pm ^ ★ . * + Auctioneer will be WIS Weatherman, ♦ * Ben Tanner * 4 4 ^ Notable Items Include: 4 4 ^ Football signed by Steve Spurrier, ^ ^ Football signed by Lou Holtz, ^ ^ Baseball singed by Ray Tanner, ^ ^ Basketball signed by Dave Odom, ^ . 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