WORCESTER (MA)
Daily News Transcript
By Denise Lavoie
Friday, January 20, 2006
WORCESTER -- The prison inmate accused of killing pedophile priest John Geoghan was a disturbed child who was beaten by his father, frequently fought with other children and became obsessed with sex at a young age, his mother testified yesterday.
Joseph Druce, 40, was serving a life sentence for another murder when he allegedly slipped into Geoghan’s cell at the Souza-Baranowski prison in Shirley in August 2003. He jammed the door shut with a book, then beat and strangled the 68-year-old Geoghan before the guards could stop him.
At the time, Geoghan, the priest at the center of the clergy sex abuse crisis, was serving a 9- to 10-year sentence for groping a 10-year-old boy, but he was also accused in civil lawsuits of molesting about 150 boys over three decades.
Druce has admitted killing Geoghan, but his lawyer is arguing he is insane and should not be help criminally responsible for his actions.