MARYLAND
Gazette
by Jill Murphy
Staff Writer
Mar. 3, 2005
When Francis A. Benham takes his seat in court for sentencing on Friday, more than 20 years will have passed since his victims last faced the priest they say sexually abused them as children.
Their last encounter with Benham occurred in the 1970s at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Forestville, but their memory continues to be haunted.
As a 13-year-old girl, one of Benham's victims played folk guitar in the church band. Her mother taught religion classes and her father served as an usher on Sundays. Her brothers were altar servers.
But in 1979, she revealed almost two years of oral sex and sodomy with Benham to her parents, according to charging documents.
"He betrayed all of us," the victim's mother said in an interview. "She idolized him. He manipulated her mind while everyone was telling her what a great person he was."
Posted by kshaw at March 3, 2005 01:57 AM