CAMBRIDGE (MA)
USA Today
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Former priest Paul Shanley told a 6-year-old boy, "If you tell, no one will believe you," before molesting him at a Newton parish in the early 1980s, a prosecutor said Tuesday. But the defense said his story was concocted in order to bring a lawsuit.
The boy didn't tell anyone for nearly 20 years, recovering his memories of the alleged abuse only after hearing of media reports about the sex scandal in the Boston Archdiocese, Assistant District Attorney Lynn Rooney said during opening statements in Shanley's child rape trial in Middlesex Superior Court.
"Those memories were buried deep inside," Rooney said.
Shanley's lawyer Frank Mondano said the accuser made up the allegations against Shanley to get in on the multimillion-dollar settlements for victims in the scandal.