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	Paroled Child Rapist Owns Property in NH By Kathryn Marchocki New Hampshire Union Leader March 19, 2009 http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Paroled+child+rapist+owns+property+in+NH&articleId=94aeda7b-2e42-49fc-9f70-c24ad7d3fdeb Robert V. Gale, 67, the defrocked Massachusetts priest who wants to serve his probation in New Hampshire on a child rape conviction has family ties in Manchester and has owned a waterfront camp on Sunrise Lake in Middleton since 1983. Former Boston archdiocesan priest, Gale began serving 25 years probation Saturday after his release from the Massachusetts Treatment Center for the Sexually Dangerous in Bridgewater, Mass. As a special condition of his probation, the sentencing judge ordered Gale immediately report to the Massachusetts probation department "to begin his process of transferring his case to New Hampshire," Bay State probation department spokeswoman Coria A. Holland said yesterday But New Hampshire doesn't accept offenders just because an out-of-state judge says so, a corrections official here said. "A Massachusetts judge cannot order the state of New Hampshire to accept a Massachusetts offender to be supervised in New Hampshire," state corrections spokesman Jeffrey Lyons said. "He can still apply to come up here. But there is a process ... and we will do the appropriate investigation like we would in any other case," Lyons added. Gale, whom the Vatican laicized in 2006, is a Level 3 sex offender now living in Everett, Mass., according to the Massachusetts sex offender registry. * Ex-priest who raped altar boy wants to live in NH (34) * NH sex offender search page To date, Gale has not applied to transfer supervision of his probation to New Hampshire, Lyons said. Applications are made under the Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision. The interstate compact program allows states to transfer and accept inmates and offenders to and from other states. Corrections officers typically consider whether an offender has a place to live, family or other community ties, employment and access to treatment services when reviewing interstate compact applications, Lyons said. The application process typically takes 30 to 45 days, he said. Gale owns a camp at 100 Lake Shore Drive on Sunrise Lake in Middleton, according to registry records. He bought the property in 1983 when he was assigned to St. Luke Parish in Waltham, Mass., records show. A female relative of Gale's also owns a house off Candia Road in east Manchester and telephone directory records list Gale as having the same telephone number and street address. Gale was convicted on Dec. 1, 2004 of four counts of child rape for molesting an altar boy at St. Jude Church in Waltham from 1980 to 1984 when the boy was 10 to 14 years old. He served more than four years in prison and was released after completing his sentence. According to Holland of Massachusetts probation, the judge imposed six special conditions on Gale's probation. They include no unsupervised contact with children under 16 years old, no employment that would involve contact with children under 16, a requirement to register as a sex offender and sex evaluation and treatment if deemed necessary, Holland said. The judge also said Gale is to report to Massachusetts probation upon release from prison to "begin his process of transferring his case to New Hampshire," she added. She said she cannot specify where in New Hampshire Gale would move. A Middlesex County Superior Court clerk, however, said the court case file requires Gale report to Massachusetts probation, but said nothing about his serving his probation in New Hampshire. Another of Gale's alleged victims was a 12-year-old altar boy from St. Joseph Parish in Quincy, Mass. He claimed Gale took him to Camp Fatima, a Manchester diocesan camp in Gilmanton Ironworks, in February 1979. Gale broke into a cabin, but couldn't get the heat to work, so Gale then took the boy to Gale's sister's Manchester apartment where he allegedly sodomized him. The alleged victim settled a civil suit against Gale and the Boston archdiocese for $80,000, his lawyer said. Church files reveal another boy alleged Gale sexually molested him in the late 1980s at a private cabin near Camp Fatima. When he met Gale, the boy was participating in the Exceptional Citizens Week, a program for children with special needs, according to the priest who reported the alleged abuse to church officials at the Boston and Manchester dioceses.
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