NEW HAMPSHIRE
Nashua Telegraph
By KEVIN LANDRIGAN, Telegraph Staff
landrigank@telegraph-nh.com
Published: Friday, Mar. 4, 2005
CONCORD - A state prosecutor pledged his office would closely monitor a new nationwide Web site that allows people to anonymously report cases of sexual abuse by clergy.
VictimPower.org is an “important tool” developed by an Andover, Mass., couple that could help investigators look into new allegations of abuse, said Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker, lead prosecutor in the state investigation of abuse by Catholic priests.“This is not a panacea by any means,” Delker said. “It is certainly an important tool in the fight against sexual abuse.”
On a related front, an existing Web site to track abusive clergy, Bishop-accountability.org, has completed a comprehensive list of New Hampshire clergy accused of abuse.
The announcements came on the two-year anniversary of the landmark settlement between then-Attorney General Philip McLaughlin and Roman Catholic Bishop John McCormack that ended state plans to charge church officials criminally in connection with sexual abuse cases. Bishop-accountability.org identifies 62 individuals, 51 of them priests with the Diocese of Manchester, seven from other religious orders such as Brothers of the Sacred Heart at Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, and four more from other dioceses.
Posted by kshaw at March 4, 2005 08:30 AM