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	Priest's Death Leaves Victim Feeling Robbed of Justice Former Priest Dies Awaiting Trial Associated Press, carried in TheBostonChannel.com June 1, 2007 http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/13426928/detail.html Boston — The death of a defrocked priest who was about to go to trial on child rape charges has left his alleged victim feeling robbed of a chance for justice, the man said Friday. Anthony Laurano, 82, the former pastor of St. Mary's Church in Plymouth, died Sunday. He was charged in 2005 in the 1991 rape of an 8-year-old boy. While he was awaiting trial, he was charged with molesting his mentally disabled neighbor in Hull, outraging members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, who criticized the decision to allow him to remain free on bail on the earlier charges. Laurano's alleged victim in the 1991 case said he went to the police in 2005 after recovering repressed memories of being raped. Since then, he has been waiting for Laurano's trial to tell his story. "That was my one chance. It was not for me, it was for the little kid I left behind," he said in a phone interview Friday. "Now I won't have that chance." Laurano retired from active service in 1995 and was placed on administrative leave by the Boston Archdiocese in 2002 at the height of the clergy sex abuse scandal, which forced the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law after hundreds of people came forward and said they had been sexually abused by priests when they were children. In March, Laurano was defrocked by the Vatican, meaning he could no longer function as a priest. Laurano faced two counts of child rape for allegedly raping the boy twice in one day in the sacristy of St. Mary's. The trial was expected to begin later this month. The alleged victim, who is now 24 and still lives in Plymouth, said he passes by the church every day and thinks about what happened to him there. He said he was angry Laurano's trial was repeatedly delayed. "I can't help but feel that the justice system let me down ... not because a man was innocent, but because he cheated facing his (actions) in death," he said in a statement he wrote after learning of Laurano's death. The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual abuse without their permission. Laurano was one of the priests shown in the PBS documentary, "Hand of God," made by the brother of a man who was allegedly molested in the 1960s by the late Rev. Joseph Birmingham, who was accused by more than 50 men of sexually abusing them as children. Laurano's attorney, Elliot Weinstein, said Laurano maintained his innocence and was confident a jury would have found him not guilty.
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