NEW JERSEY
Star-Ledger
Saturday, May 13, 2006
BY MARGARET McHUGH
Star-Ledger Staff
A married Roman Catholic priest who battered his wife, bullied his children and fondled a boy was sentenced yesterday to six months in jail.
After listening to his four children and wife describe the violent episodes they endured for years, the Rev. William Winston, 52, the former pastor of St. Virgil's Catholic Parish in Morris Township, faced them in the packed Morristown courtroom and gave a tearful apology.
"I have failed as a father, and as a husband," he said. "I wish I could say it to you on a daily basis for every day of the rest of our lives."
In February, Winston pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and child abuse, admitting that he assaulted his wife, Janet, twice in 2004. He knocked her to the ground and continued to kick and punch her. On Nov. 1, 2004, Winston inflicted a permanent injury to her jaw.
The admitted alcoholic acknowledged that while drunk, he fondled a boy, now 11, at least four times between February 1999 and February 2002.