BishopAccountability.org
	Bernard Shero Philadelphia Grand Jury Presentment February 16, 2011 http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/PDFs/clergyAbuse2-finalPresentment.pdf [pdf] According to Billy, he had a slight break over the summer between fifth and sixth grades. He went to the New Jersey Shore with his family and, for that period, did not have to serve Mass with Father Engelhardt or Father Avery. However, when he returned to school in the fall, he was in the sixth-grade class of Bernard Shero, a teacher who, Billy said, was "kind of a creep." He touched students when he talked to them, and would put his arm around students and whisper in their ears. Billy recalled that Shero's conversations with students were inappropriate, and that he would try to talk to Billy about intimate things. One day, according to the victim's testimony, Shero told the boy he would give him a ride home from school. But instead of taking Billy straight home, he stopped at a park about a mile from the boy's house. When Billy asked why they were stopping, Shero answered, "We're going to have some fun." The teacher told Billy to get in the back seat of the car. He directed his student to take his clothes off, but then became impatient and started helping Billy to undress. Shero, the victim testified, then fondled Billy's genitals and orally and anally raped the now 11-year-old boy. Shero was only able to get his penis part-way into Billy's anus because the boy screamed in pain. The teacher then had Billy perform sexual acts on him. As Billy did so, Shero kept saying, "It feels good." After raping his student, Shero told the boy to get dressed. He then made Billy walk the rest of the way home. Billy suffered physical and emotional harm as a result of the abuse. Although Billy was too frightened to directly report the abuse as a child, he experienced otherwise unexplained physical problems that corroborated his testimony before the Grand Jury. Billy's mother, Sheila Gallagher, testified that in the fifth grade (the same year that Fathers Engelhardt and Avery were having their "sessions" with him), Billy complained of pain in his testicles. In the sixth grade (the year when Shero raped and orally sodomized him), Billy went through an extended period when he would cough, gag, and vomit for no reason. Sheila Gallagher testified that she took Billy to doctors for both conditions, but there was never a diagnosis. Mrs. Gallagher turned over to the Grand Jurors her records of her visits to doctors with Billy. Billy's mother also told us of a dramatic change in his personality that coincided with the abuse. His friends and their parents also noticed this personality change. Billy's mother watched as her friendly, happy, sociable son turned into a lonely, sullen boy. He no longer played sports or socialized with his friends. He separated himself, and began to smoke marijuana at age 11. By the time Billy was in high school, he was abusing prescription painkillers. Eventually he graduated to heroin. It was at an inpatient drug treatment facility that Billy first told someone about his abuse. Billy's mother testified that she probably should have suspected something before then, because she found two books about sexual abuse hidden under Billy's bed when he was in high school. She asked him about the books at the time, but he covered up for his abusers by telling her that he had obtained the books for a school assignment.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.