CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Daily News Transcript
By Denise Lavoie / Associated Press
Tuesday, February 8, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, the most notorious figure in the clergy sex abuse scandal that rocked the Boston Archdiocese, was convicted Monday of repeatedly molesting a boy at his church during the 1980s.
The conviction on all four charges gives prosecutors a high-profile victory in their effort to bring pedophile priests to justice for decades of abuse at Roman Catholic parishes around the country.
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about 13 hours over five days before reaching the verdict in a trial that turned on the reliability of the accuser's recovered memories of long-ago abuse.
The victim, now 27, put his head down and sobbed as the verdicts were announced.