PENNSYLVANIA
WFMJ
By Mike Gauntner, Online Content Manager
HARRISBURG, Pa. –
A hidden file on a former friar and coach who was accused of sexually abusing 11 students at Warren John F. Kennedy School was one of the first clues that led investigators to evidence that hundreds of children were sexually abused over a period of at least 40 years by priests or religious leaders assigned to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane released a 147-page report on Tuesday outlining the results of a statewide grand jury investigation into alleged widespread abuse involving at least 50 priests or religious leaders.
Evidence and testimony reviewed by the grand jury also revealed a history of superiors within the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese taking action to conceal the child abuse as part of an effort to protect the institution’s image.
The report says that during the two-year investigation, Special Agents from the Office of the Attorney General found a “Secret Archive” in a safe contained in a cabinet in the Altoona-Johnstown Bishop’s office. The safe was under lock in which only the Bishop had the key. The safe contained only one file pertaining to a Franciscan Friar, Brother Stephen Baker.
In 2013, an attorney said that while Baker was working as an athletic trainer at Bishop McCourt High School in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, he sexually abused several female athletes and cheerleaders at the school.
That same year, it was revealed that 11 students who attended JFK High School between 1986 and 1990, had received the financial settlements for crimes committed against them as children, allegedly by Brother Baker.
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