French priest and bishop convicted over
sexual abuse of minors
The convictions are the latest in a series of sex abuse scandals
that have rocked the Vatican
Unfortunately, it seems to have rocked them to sleep
rather than waking them up
The Vatican is under pressure following a string of abuses committed by clergy in the Americas, Australia and Europe [Stefan Wermuth/Reuters]
A French priest has been sentenced to two years in prison for sexually abusing multiple children, while his former bishop has been given a suspended sentence of eight months for failing to report the crimes.
A court in the city of Orleans in central France on Thursday handed down the verdict against the priest, Pierre de Castelet, and the retired bishop, Andre Fort.
A court official said the ruling forbids de Castelet from working as a priest or meeting with minors, puts him on a national list of sex offenders and orders him to receive psychiatric treatment.
Three victims were awarded 16,000 euros ($18,245) each in damages.
De Castelet, 69, was convicted for abusing children during a summer camp in 1993, where he touched them inappropriately while pretending to carry out medical examinations.
Both men are expected to avoid serving time behind bars, since French law allows a convict to apply for a non-custodial punishment in cases involving short jail sentences.
Well, that ought to teach them and set a terrifying precedent for future paedophile priests!!! Good grief!
Still, prosecutions of bishops are extremely rare in France, with the last case dating back to 2001 when a bishop in the town of Bayeux-Lisieux was given a three-month suspended jail term for failing to report abuse.
After the judgements, one of de Castelet's victims, Olivier Savignac, said he was satisfied with the outcome.
"We were heard. I am happy with my country," he told reporters.
Were you heard? I don't think the judge truly understood the damage that was really done. There should, at least, have been an element of deterrence in his sentencing. There wasn't!
Vatican under pressure
Predominantly Catholic France has seen priests accused of sexual abuse recently but has not faced a national scandal or reckoning like that seen in multiple countries across the world.
French Catholic clerics have also been caught in abuse scandals, according to French investigative journal, Mediapart.
In response to alleged abuse scandals, French bishops organised an "independent" panel to investigate child abuse committed by Catholic priests in early November.
The Bishops' Conference of France said in a November 7 statement that the panel would seek "to understand the reasons which led to the way these affairs were handled" and make recommendations.
The Vatican is under pressure following a string of sexual abuse accusations against clergy in the Americas, Australia and Europe.
More than 300 "predator" priests were accused of abusing over 1,000 minors over seven decades in the US state of Pensylvania, according to a report released in August. Most of the abuse survivors were boys, the report said.
On Monday, the Catholic Church in Spain admitted that priests and other members of the clergy had sexually abused minors.
Earlier this year, all 31 Catholic bishops in Chile offered their resignation over a sex abuse cover-up scandal.
Pope Francis has called for a summit in February on the prevention of sex abuse with national Catholic Church leaders from around the world.
Sydney college priest sentenced to 12 years in jail
for historic child sex abuse
Brother Victor Higgs was supposed to be caring for students at one of Sydney’s most prestigious schools. But, he abused his position of trust in the boarding house at the St Ignatius Riverview College when he abused six boys - aged just 12 years old - in the 1970s and 80s.
Today, aged 81 and in very poor health, he was sentenced to 12 years behind bars for his insidious crimes.
St Ignatius Riverviwe College brother Victor Higgs has been sentenced to 12 years behind bars for the historic sexual abuse of six boys, all aged 12, in the 1970s and 80s. (9NEWS)
The court heard Brother Higgs would summon his victims to private locations at the school for one-on-one chats, where he would ask them to undress and perform sexual acts on them.
A Sydney court heard Higgs would summon his victims to private locations at the school and would ask them to undress and perform sexual acts on them during one-on-one chats. (Supplied)
Five of his six victims today spoke of the life-long impacts. Many broke down as they described relationship breakdowns, alcohol abuse, post traumatic stress and psychological issues.
“He destroyed me and my life,” one said. “He is pure evil. I hope he rots in hell. In fact, hell is too good for him.”
Another said: “I hope nothing more than for him to die in jail”.
Detective Sergeant Eugene Stek today commended the victims for having the courage to share their stories in court.
"I think everyone present in that courtroom today felt the power of their testimony,” he said. “They’ve been so terribly impacted over the years. It never goes away.”
When sentencing Higgs to 12 years, with a seven-and-a-half-year non-parole period, Judge Christopher Robinson said the young boarders were “entitled to feel safe and protected... but he took advantage of them when they were isolated from their families.”
“Clearly there is no remorse, contrition or empathy for any of the victims," he said.
Prosecutor Sean Grant said Higgs' tactic was to have one-on-one talks with boarders. “But there was a sinister side to those talks,” he said. “It enabled him to identify the vulnerable.. and exploit their weaknesses. He was a fisherman in a trawler, trawling the seas for the weak and the vulnerable.”
Prosecutor Grant and the victims all say there are still questions that need to be answered, including why Higgs was transferred to the Sydney school after complaints were made about his predatory behaviour at another Jesuit school in Adelaide.
And why he was then allowed to work in a boarding house, where he had access to young boys without supervision.
“How in God’s name can they move a predator after a complaint was made... knowing damn well he’s going to do it again,” a victim told 9News.
“It beggars belief. It’s criminal.”
Indeed, how, 'in God's Name' can they justify any of their behaviour. There was certainly nothing of God in it.
Victor Higgs will be 88 years old when he’s eligible for parole.
Diocese Of Pittsburgh Priest Accused Of
Child Sexual Abuse, Placed On Leave
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A priest in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has been placed on administrative leave after being accused of sexually abusing a minor.
Feltz most recently served as pastor of Saint Christopher Parish in Prospect, Butler County. The Diocese says he retired from Saint Christopher Parish in October, but he remained in active ministry.
The priest is accused of sexually abusing a minor in the mid-1980s.
Feltz is among four priests named in 12 new lawsuits filed this week on behalf of victims. Feltz was not named in the grand jury report released earlier this year.
 |
| Old St Michael's Church, Elizabeth, PA |
Attorney Alan Perer is representing the victims.
“I think [the fact] that we have four new priests that were not named [in the grand jury report] there shows you that this was a broader and wider system of abuse,” Perer said. “When I talk to people like [the victim], there’s no doubt in my mind that what they tell me is true about the particular priest.”
According to the complaint, the alleged abuse happened when the victim was between the ages of 12 and 18 and attended church at St. Michael’s in Elizabeth, Pa.
The victim says Feltz was one of several priests who abused him and the abuse occurred in the rectory of the church.
According to the Diocese, Feltz has denied any wrongdoing.
So much for repentance!
Buffalo priest aimed gun at boy's head
while molesting him
By Jay Tokasz A deceased former Buffalo Diocese priest is accused of pointing a gun at the head of a teenage boy he was molesting in the mid-1980s.
Freeman was serving as associate pastor at St. Mary parish in Lancaster in the mid-1980s when he allegedly pointed a gun at the boy to persuade him to have sexual contact.
That startling new allegation was made by the now-49-year-old man in a compensation claim submitted to a Buffalo Diocese program offering monetary settlements to victims of childhood sexual abuse.
The man also said in his claim that Freeman provided absolution of the boy’s sins immediately following the acts of abuse, according to Steve Boyd, an Amherst attorney who represents the man. Catholics believe that priests alone, through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, have the power to free those who confess their sins from the spiritual consequences of those transgressions.
“This was the pattern that began, that Freeman would have this child perform oral sex on him and then absolve him of the sin afterwards,” said Boyd.
Amazing! And then who absolved the priest's sins? Did pedophile priests confess their sins to other priests or bishops? Did such priests or bishops actually absolve, or attempt to absolve, the sins of pedophile priests? Do you think child molesting priests have authority in Christ's Name to do anything?
The priest began having sexual contact with the boy when the boy was about 14, according to Boyd.
Boyd submitted the claim for the man, who declined to be interviewed by The News but authorized Boyd to speak on his behalf. The man lives outside of Western New York, said Boyd. He is married and has children.
The man also said that Freeman, a former Buffalo police and military chaplain, regularly carried a silver-plated .38-caliber revolver, according to Boyd.
“And if the child would not participate willingly in Freeman’s sexual abuse, Freeman would jokingly threaten him with the revolver,” said Boyd. “He always carried it concealed. And several times, Freeman put the gun to the boy’s head.”
In addition, the man accused Freeman of paying a male prostitute in Toronto to have sex with them both, said Boyd.
“Freeman would take the child to Toronto with him and on one occasion Freeman paid a prostitute whose name was Scott to have sex with Freeman and the boy,” he said.
The abuse began in 1984 or 1985 and continued through the victim’s high school years, said Boyd.
Report: Diocese knew of history
Buffalo Diocese officials knew in 1981 that Freeman had a history of abuse, according to a Pennsylvania grand jury report released in August.
Edward D. Head was the bishop of Buffalo at the time. One of his top administrators was Monsignor Donald W. Trautman, who served as diocesan chancellor and vicar general and was later named auxiliary bishop in Buffalo. Trautman became bishop of the Erie Diocese in 1990.The Buffalo Diocese did not inform the public about Freeman until March 2018, when Bishop Richard J. Malone released a list of 42 priests who had been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with minors.
The Pennsylvania grand jury, in its investigation of clergy sex abuse in six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania, included Freeman in its report because it found that the Buffalo priest had ministered in various assignments in Pennsylvania.
The report said Freeman admitted to committing sexual misconduct with minors at St. Margaret and St. Lawrence parishes in Buffalo, where he served in the early 1970s, and at other clergy assignments. He also taught at Bishop Turner High School.
“The Grand Jury found no documentation in Freeman’s file that indicated that the Dioceses of Buffalo or Erie ever notified law enforcement officials, despite the fact that Freeman admitted to sexually violating children in at least five of his six ministry assignments,” the grand jury report said.
The News sought additional information about the allegations against Freeman from the Buffalo Diocese. Diocese spokeswoman Kathy Spangler said that officials could not provide answers at the moment because Freeman's personnel file - along with the files of other priests accused of abuse - has been handed over to the state Attorney General's office in response to a subpoena.
"At some point, when it is returned to us, time frame unknown, we will be able to respond to your questions," said Spangler.
An early accuser
One of Freeman's accusers, Paul Barr of Niagara Falls, said he first notified the diocese about Freeman in the early 1980s.
Barr said in an interview with The News that Freeman molested him in 1980 in the rectory of Sacred Heart Church in Niagara Falls, and he was outraged to learn the priest later victimized someone else.
“They knew, and they just turned a blind eye. What kills me is he abused people after I reported it. I think that bothers me more than anything,” said Barr, an attorney in Niagara Falls.
Barr also filed a claim this year for compensation from the diocese.
Barr said his abuse happened after the priest invited him to the rectory to talk about staying involved in the parish’s youth ministry program. The invitation seemed innocuous enough: Barr, who was 16 at the time, took his Catholic faith seriously and was flattered by the priest’s interest in him.
“The first thing he did was hand me a beer,” said Barr. “I didn’t even like beer, but I said to myself, ‘This is cool, I’m drinking beer with a priest.’ "
But at the meeting, Barr said, the priest told him he needed to be checked for a sports injury that could be serious if not detected early. “He said, ‘You want me to check you out, make sure you’re all right?’ ” recalled Barr, who was a high school wrestler. “He seemed to be stressing it was something that athletes got. So he was flattering me, saying, ‘You must be an athlete.’ ”
Barr said he trusted the priest. But then Freeman fondled him, he said. “It wasn’t an examination touch,” said Barr.
Barr said he reported the molestation to the Buffalo Diocese a couple years later, at the urging of a youth minister who drove him to the chancery offices. Barr didn’t recall the name of the woman to whom he gave the report.
“I don’t know if it was a nun or a social worker. I told her the story, just as I’m telling you,” he said. “She more or less thanked me for coming in. And that was it. There was no follow up or anything.”
Barr said he’s gone to counseling for years to work through the emotional impact of the abuse.
Grand jury report
A summary of Freeman’s sexual misconduct was included in the Pennsylvania grand jury report, but it’s not clear if the grand jury obtained information about Freeman from the Buffalo Diocese or from a diocese in Pennsylvania.
The report stated that Freeman was assigned to St. Christopher in Tonawanda, Pa., in 1982 and to St. Mary in Lancaster, Pa., in 1984. However, there is no Tonawanda in Pennsylvania, and Freeman is listed in Buffalo Diocese directories as assigned to St. Christopher in Tonawanda, N.Y., in 1982 and to St. Mary in Lancaster, N.Y., in 1984.
A spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Attorney General's Office declined to comment on the discrepancies.
Trautman, who retired in 2012 and is now bishop emeritus of Erie, said he doesn’t remember Freeman working in any parishes in the Erie Diocese.
“I think it’s a mistake. He was never a priest of the Erie Diocese,” said Trautman. “I think his crime was he brought a young boy from Jamestown into the Erie Diocese and molested him.”
Trautman was a high-ranking administrator in the Buffalo Diocese for more than 15 years prior to his appointment in 1990 as bishop of Erie. In his administrative roles in the Buffalo Diocese – he served as Head’s second-in-command for much of the 1970s and 1980s – he likely would have dealt with abuse allegations against Freeman and other priests.
But Trautman, 82, said in a telephone interview that he didn’t recall the accusations against Freeman or how the priest’s case was handled in Buffalo. “The general practice was if the priest has proven sins against him, he’s taken out of ministry,” he said.
Trautman was heavily criticized in the grand jury report for his handling of sex abuse complaints in the Erie Diocese.
But Trautman said he removed many priests from ministry and years ago handed over diocesan files on abusive priests to the Erie County (Pa.) District Attorney’s Office. He served as Erie bishop until his retirement in 2012.
“Not everything in that grand jury report is accurate,” he said. “I think there are many instances where the report is not factual.”
The grand jury report stated that Freeman’s faculties as a priest were revoked in 1989 and that the diocese continued to provide financial aid to Freeman until July 31, 1999, when he told diocese officials that he had a new job that would provide a salary and health insurance.
Freeman went on to work for the Veterans Health Administration. He was listed in 2009 as a social worker with the Canandaigua VA Medical Center in Ontario County, according to federalpay.org, a website that tracks federal employees.
He died in 2010, at age 63, in Highland Hospital in Rochester after a brief illness, according to an obituary in the Niagara Gazette.
File to DPP over former Irish scout leader
after child sex assault allegation
Barry RocheGardaí in Cork are to prepare a file for the DPP after releasing without charge a former scout leader who was arrested for questioning about sexually assaulting a young boy in the 1980s.
Detectives arrested the man, who is in his early 70s, shortly after 8am on Monday for questioning after they received a complaint that he sexually assaulted a young boy over 30 years ago.
The complainant, who is now in his early 40s, made a formal statement to gardaí alleging the man abused him over six year period beginning in 1983 when he was just seven and continuing until 1989.
The boy was a member of his local troop of the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland and he has alleged that he was sexually assaulted by the scout leader when he was invited to his house to discuss scouting matters.
The man was arrested under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act which allowed gardaí detain him for up to 24 hours.
The man, who is now retired from the scouts, was released without charge shortly before 7pm and gardaí will now prepare a file on the matter for the DPP, a garda spokesman confirmed.
The arrest comes just a week after Minister for Children Katherine Zappone revealed details of an internal review of child protection measures in Scouting Ireland, which was formed in 2004 following the merger of the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland and the Scout Association of Ireland.
Child protection expert Ian Elliott was commissioned last year by Scouting Ireland to carry out the audit and he identified 108 historic cases of alleged child sex abuse and 71 alleged abusers.
However, Mr Elliott told an Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs that he expected the number of known victims to increase “quite considerably” as the review of past records was still ongoing.
Abuse victims were contacting the organisation at an “increasing” rate, said Mr Elliott, adding most cases related to incidents between the 1960s and 1980s, and the majority of alleged abusers were deceased.
Trial opens in case of former Massachusetts priest accused of child sex abuse in Maine
In the courtroom
BY MEGAN GRAY, Portland PressALFRED — The man took a sip of water from a white paper cup, and as he put it down on the witness stand in the York County courthouse, his hand was shaking.
The man told the jury that Paquin befriended him when he was an altar boy and in religious classes at their Haverhill, Massachusetts, parish. He said the former priest took him out for meals, let him drive his car without a license and took him on trips around the country.
“He tried to be like a pal,” the man said.
He also said Paquin told dirty jokes that quickly led to sexual contact, which allegedly occurred in multiple locations including a motel and campground in Kennebunkport. He told the jury that Paquin urged him to perform masturbation and oral sex on the former priest, and Paquin also performed those acts on the boy. The abuse allegedly began when the man was as young as 12 or 13 years old and continued through his teenage years. His parents were divorced, the man said, and Paquin used that to manipulate him.
“He said no one would care for me as he does,” he told the jury.
The accuser has not been publicly identified, and the Portland Press Herald does not name alleged victims of sex crimes without their consent.
Paquin, 76, was one of the priests exposed in the early 2000s by a sweeping Boston Globe investigation into clergy sex abuse. He is now facing criminal charges in York County, and his trial this week likely is the first in Maine for a priest embroiled in the Catholic Church’s ongoing sexual abuse scandal. He has pleaded not guilty to all 31 counts against him.
During opening statements Monday, attorneys for both sides outlined the week ahead for the jurors.
Assistant District Attorney Justina McGettigan said they would hear from the two men who have accused Paquin of sexually abusing them when they were teenagers, as well as people who worked at the Kennebunkport motel and campground where the misconduct allegedly took place. She said they would describe how Paquin befriended them as altar boys, took them on trips and gave them alcohol to build their trust.
“All of this while the defendant was a religious figure in their lives,” McGettigan said.
Valerie Randall, one of two attorneys representing Paquin, alluded to the #MeToo movement that has brought to light allegations of sexual misconduct from years past, comparing them to those presented in this case. She asked the jurors to be skeptical of information that is not specific.
“Let’s call this the ‘ick’ factor,” Randall said. “When someone is accused of things like Mr. Paquin, we can be quick to make a judgment because it sounds so icky. You want to make a snap judgment about this case. So I’m going to remind you to keep an open mind today as you listen to all the evidence, as you see the witnesses here today, as you listen to their testimony, because Mr. Paquin sits here today cloaked in the presumption of innocence.”
Paquin sat flanked by his two attorneys during the first day of testimony. Wearing a gray suitcoat and black pants, he used a cane when he walked into the courtroom. The judge addressed him before the jury entered the courtroom, asking whether he had chosen to go to trial rather than accept a plea offer from the state. In a quiet voice, the former priest answered yes.
Throughout the day, the attorneys interrupted testimony nearly a dozen times for quiet conferences with the judge, especially while the accuser was on the stand. The prosecutors asked him about trips he took to Maine with Paquin. He described the motel and trailer where they stayed in Kennebunkport, and he recalled a car accident on an icy road when Paquin let him drive. The defense team questioned him about a civil suit from the early 2000s, and he said he received an $80,000 settlement from the Boston archdiocese. He became agitated when Paquin’s lawyers read specific memories from his statements during the civil case, and at one point, he needed a break from the questions.
“I’ve done a lot of work in therapy,” he said. “Maybe things have been forgotten since 2003 so I can move on with my life.”
The jurors also heard brief testimony Monday from two people whose family owned and worked at the former Beachwood Resort and the Salty Acres Campground in Kennebunkport, where Paquin kept his trailer. The final witness of the day was Kennebunkport police Detective David Breault, who investigated the case. He said there were few documents or records that still exist from the 1980s that could have helped his investigation, but he did find the report from the crash the alleged victim remembered.
The testimony did not include any evidence about Paquin’s earlier conviction. He pleaded guilty in Massachusetts in 2002 to repeatedly raping an altar boy between 1989 and 1992, beginning when the victim was 12. He was defrocked in 2004 and imprisoned until 2015, when specialists said he no longer met the criteria to be considered sexually dangerous.
The Boston Globe reported Paquin admitted to medical evaluators that he abused at least 14 boys and said he was also abused as a child. Other allegations against him have prompted civil settlements, but no other criminal convictions. In Maine, charges against Paquin and one other Catholic priest have been possible because the statute of limitations for such crimes against a child younger than 16 was eliminated in 1999, and the state Attorney General at the time said sex crimes committed against children after 1987 could be prosecuted at any time in the future.
Keith Townsend, who now lives in New Hampshire, told the Boston Globe that he was one of Paquin’s victims and that he contacted authorities in Maine after learning Paquin had been released in Massachusetts. Townsend is expected to testify later in the trial.
Paquin was indicted in February 2017 on 29 counts of gross sexual misconduct for the allegations in Maine. He was soon arrested in Boston and has been held at the York County Jail ever since. Prosecutors later added two more charges, bringing the total to 31. All are Class A or B felonies. In September, former Maine priest and Cheverus High School teacher James Talbot pleaded guilty in Cumberland County Superior Court to sexually assaulting a Freeport boy in the 1990s. Talbot, 80, was ordered to serve three years in prison. The full sentence on a charge of gross sexual assault was for 10 years, with all but three years suspended. He also received a concurrent sentence of three years for unlawful sexual contact. He had also been convicted once before in Massachusetts and served six years in prison.
Legal experts said Talbot would have faced a challenging trial in the context of the broader sex abuse scandal because jurors are not supposed to have prior knowledge of a case or past experiences that could create bias.
During jury selection for Paquin’s trial, the judge and attorneys spent hours questioning dozens of people individually about their knowledge of the church’s broader turmoil and their ability to be fair and impartial jurors. They asked potential jurors if they had seen the film “Spotlight,” which tells the story of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Boston Archdiocese. Paquin’s case was one of those mentioned in the movie. When 16 people were finally chosen to serve as jurors and alternates, Superior Court Justice Wayne Douglas included in his instructions a ban on watching “Spotlight” before or during the trial.
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