WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
POSTED | 1:25 P.M.
By Gary Murray Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER— A boastful Joseph L. Druce “seemed very pleased with himself” as he confessed in prison to the slaying of fellow inmate and defrocked priest John J. Geoghan, a Worcester Superior Court jury was told today.
Edward Hammond, a lieutenant with the state Department of Correction, testified this morning that he took a statement from Mr. Druce on the afternoon of Aug. 23, 2003, about 90 minutes after Mr. Druce beat and strangled the 68-year-old ex-priest in Mr. Geoghan’s cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center on the Shirley-Lancaster line.
Lt. Hammond said Mr. Druce, who has raised an insanity defense to the murder charge, told the lieutenant, after being advised of Miranda rights, that “he killed the child molester.”
“He can’t touch any more kids,” Lt. Hammond said he was told by Mr. Druce.
At the time of the killing, Mr. Druce was serving a life sentence imposed in 1989 for the murder of a man who allegedly made a sexual advance toward him. Mr. Geoghan had been sentenced to 9 to 10 years for sexually assaulting a child.
The trial of Mr. Druce continued this afternoon and was expected to move into next week.