ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times
By Danny Wicentowski Mon., Sep. 30 2013
A former St. Louis priest was sentenced Thursday to four years probation on charges related an inappropriate relationship with a sixteen-year-old altar boy.
Though acquitted of outright sexual abuse in July, Fr. Robert Charles Manning was convicted on two charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor stemming from evidence that he had given a Colorado teenager liquor and marijuana in 2011. Manning apparently also accompanied the boy to get his nipples pierced and put his own signature on a parental consent form.
If four years of probation sounds light, that’s because it is: Manning, 78, is in deteriorating health and relied on a wheelchair and oxygen tank to make it through his own trial. The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that the judge did consider sending the elderly priest to prison but chose not to since Manning would almost certainly end up serving his time in a hospital.
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