PORTLAND (ME)
Foster's Daily Democrat
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — After the parents of a 6-year-old Lewiston girl complained in 1958 that their daughter had been sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest, they felt assured that he would be kept away from other children.
The Rev. Lawrence Sabatino was quickly transferred to a parish in Portland, but he continued to have access to young girls.
Sabatino died in 1990 at age 65. Since that time, 13 other women have come forward, either personally or through family members, to report that Sabatino abused them after his transfer to St. Peter's Church. Most say they were between 7 and 13 at the time.
The case, detailed in the Maine Sunday Telegram, is the only one involving a Maine priest accused of continuing to abuse children after being reported to the Diocese of Portland.
Many of the allegations came from women who were invited by Sabatino to participate in Sodality, an after-school children's club at St. Peter's. He got the girls to play games like hide-and-seek, they said, and would pick one girl to hide with and then abuse her.
Posted by kshaw at June 6, 2005 06:55 AM