Mother Tells of Hidden Shock, by Bob Gardinier, Albany Times Union, February 4, 2011

Mother Tells of Hidden Shock

By Bob Gardinier
Albany Times Union
February 4, 2011

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Mother-cries-telling-jury-about-son-s-alleged-997230.php

Ex-priest Gary Mercure listens to testimony during his trial for the alleged sexual abuse of two boys in the 1990s. Mercure is on trial in the Berkshire County Courthouse in Pittsfield, Mass. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Judge John A. Agostini addresses the jury during the start of ex-priest Gary Mercure's trial for the alleged sexual abuse of two boys in the 1980s. Mercure, who served in the Albany Catholic Diocese, is on trial in Pittsfield, Mass. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

A mother broke down in tears on the witness stand Friday, telling jurors how she found underwear her young son hid inside his bedroom wall after incidents of alleged rape by a former Troy priest.

Ex-priest Gary Mercure listens to testimony during his trial for the alleged sexual abuse of boys in the 1980s. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Gary Mercure, 62, who was suspended from the ministry amid child rape accusations in January 2008 while serving at the Sacred Heart and St. William parishes in Troy, is on trial in Berkshire County Court on three counts of rape of a child with force and one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14. The charges pertain to two separate incidents with two altar boys and allegedly happened in that county in 1986 and 1989.

Berkshire County, Mass., Assistant District Attorney Marianne Shelvey checks evidence during a recess in ex-priest Gary Mercure's trial for the alleged sexual abuse of two boys in the 1980s. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Two of the priest's alleged victims, both former altar boys at Our Lady of the Annunciation Church in Queensbury when Mercure served there in the 1980s, testified Thursday about taking trips to Massachusetts with Mercure when they were between 10 and 12 years old. Both alleged they were raped in the back seat of his car.