PHILADELPHIA (PA)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Associated Press | Posted: Monday, March 26, 2012
Defense lawyers plan to attack the credibility of the troubled adult accusers when two Roman Catholic priests go on trial in a landmark child sex-abuse case involving the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
But that strategy took a hit Thursday when co-defendant Edward Avery entered a last-minute guilty plea, confirming one accuser’s account of a brutal 1999 sexual assault inside a church sacristy. The victim was then a 10-year-old altar boy, Avery a 57-year-old priest.
Avery’s plea leaves Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan on trial on Monday. Brennan, 48, is charged with raping a 14-year-old boy in 1996.
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