WASHINGTON (DC)
GW Hatchet
By Kate Ackerman
Published: Thursday, February 17, 2005
(U-WIRE) WASHINGTON - The Boston area priest, Paul Shanley, who was convicted of raping a boy repeatedly in the 1980s earlier this month, was sentenced to 12 to 15 years Tuesday.
"It is difficult to imagine a more egregious misuse of trust and authority," said Judge Stephen Neel while delivering the sentencing. However, he chose not to give the 74 year-old man life in prison as the prosecution requested.
Shanley will be up for parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence. He was also sentenced to 10 years probation.
"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 accuser said in a statement read by his lawyer during the sentencing hearing.
The now 27-year-old firefighter said Shanley molested him continuously for six years in the 1980s, starting when he was six years old. His repressed memories of the abuse came back three years ago as the clergy abuse scandal unfolded, he said.