(PA)
Tribune-Review [Pittsburgh PA]
July 28, 2022
By Megan Tomasic
A retired Catholic priest who served at St. Francis de Sales Church in West Virginia is accused of sexually abusing a boy in Butler County, according to court papers.
Perry Malacaman, 84, who resides in West Virginia, is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16, corruption of minors and indecent assault of a person younger than 16, according to a criminal complaint.
Pennsylvania State Police said the accuser, who is now 19, came to them on July 13 to report that Malacaman had sexually abused him when he was between 9 and 14 years old. The suspect would have been between 74 and 79 years old at the time.
The Tribune-Review doesn’t identify alleged victims of sexual assault.
The teen told police he was abused by Malacaman on more than five different occasions, all at the same location, documents show.
A preliminary hearing has not yet been scheduled.
St. Francis de Sales is a parish in Beckley, W.Va., in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.
Malacaman was ordained in 1972, in the Archdiocese of Davao, in Davao City, Philippines. He had been assigned to several parishes in West Virginia starting in 1993 and last served as a priest in 2009 in Beckley, according to diocesan Bishop Mark E. Brennan, who wrote a letter to Catholics in the Beckley area.
“He has not been assigned in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston since then. Prior to his arrest, there were no sex abuse-related complaints on file for Fr. Malacaman,” Brennan wrote.
Megan Tomasic is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Megan by email at mtomasic@triblive.com or via Twitter .