Child rapist priest jailed for 15 years

DEFROCKED Catholic priest Paul Shanley, a central figure in the Boston Archdiocese clergy sex abuse scandal, was jailed for 12 to 15 years yesterday for raping a boy repeatedly in the 1980s.

“It is difficult to imagine a more egregious misuse of trust and authority,” Boston Judge Stephen Neel said in imposing the sentence.

Shanley, 74, once known for a being a hip “street priest” who reached out to troubled children and homosexuals, was convicted last week of two counts each of child rape and indecent assault and battery on a child. Prosecutor Lynn Rooney had recommended a life sentence, saying Shanley used his position of authority to gain the trust of the boys he then molested.

“He used his collar and he used his worshipped status in that community,” Rooney said. .”

Shanley’s accuser, now a 27-year-old Boston fireman, said the former priest would pull him from Sunday morning catechism classes then rape and fondle him.

The abuse began in 1983, when he was six years old, and continued for six years, he said.

Some inmate advocates say whatever prison term Shanley gets could amount to a death sentence.

Another key figure in the scandal in Massachusetts, former priest John Geoghan, was beaten and strangled behind bars in 2003, a year after being convicted of molesting a 10-year-old boy.