TENNESSEE
Courthouse News Service
By JEFF D. GORMAN
(CN) – A Tennessee priest was properly convicted of criminal sexual abuse and aggravated rape related to decades-old attacks, a state appeals court ruled.
An altar boy at St. Dominic’s Church in Kingsport testified that his pastor, William Casey, starting abusing him in 1975 when he was 10. The abuse included oral sex and anal penetration, according to the victim’s testimony.
The victim said he had been reluctant to speak out because his mother told him that she was in love with Casey, who was supposedly going to leave the priesthood to marry her. He also felt nobody would believe him and that he had been taught that priests were God’s representatives on Earth.
Casey meanwhile professed to love the boy, with whom he claimed to have a “special” relationship, the victim later testified. Casey gave him a medallion and 10 shares of Piedmont Airlines stock, he said.
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