Convicted Child Molester Macrae Wants a New Trial

New Hampshire Union Leader
February 23, 2012

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120223/NEWS03/702239991

A Catholic priest convicted in 1994 of sexually assaulting boys wants a new trial, claiming new evidence exposes his chief accuser as a manipulative liar intent on making money off the church.

Writing in support of their motion for a new trial for Gordon MacRae, attorney Robert Rosenthal of New York City and Manchester lawyer Cathy J. Green say new evidence reveals the accuser admitted to friends and family “his accusations were lies manufactured for diocese cash.”

MacRae was convicted at trial of sexually assaulting the teenager, then pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three other boys. He is serving a 33 1/2 to 67 years prison sentence. He maintains his innocence.

MacRae's attorneys also claim his trial was tainted by ineffective assistance of counsel and infected by a “moral panic” that swept up the nation in the late 1980s and early 1990s by a series of other “equally outlandish” prosecutions of child sexual abuse cases. The case “is an example of a justice system blinded by passion,” they wrote in their brief filed with Cheshire County Superior Court.