Sex abuse victims respond to predator priest's appeal

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell)

Everyone is of course entitled to his or her legal rights, but this maneuver will only cause more harm to those who've already been harmed by the crimes of Paul Shanley and the complicity of his Catholic supervisors.

We grieve for Shanley's victims and for their families who have already suffered so much, so long and so severely.

This is, of course, typical predator behavior: trying to exploit every imaginable legal technicality possible. We hope he doesn't succeed. Kids are safer when predators like Shanley are behind bars.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 17 years and have more than 8,000 members across the country. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, 314-645-5915 home), Peter Isely (414-429-7259) Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688), Mary Grant (626-419-2930), Mark Serrano (703-727-4940)

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Priest in Mass. clergy abuse crisis seeks new trial

By Denise Lavoie - AP Legal Affairs Writer / May 28, 2008

BOSTON—A notorious priest in the clergy sex abuse crisis in the Boston Archdiocese is challenging the repressed memories of his victim in a bid for a new trial.

Defrocked priest Paul Shanley is serving a 12- to 15-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2005 of repeatedly raping a boy at a Newton parish in the 1980s.

In a motion for a new trial, Shanley claims his former lawyer did not properly challenge the repressed memory evidence that helped convict him. The victim testified he repressed memories of the sexual abuse until 2002, when they came back as the sex abuse scandal unfolded in the media.

A judge is expected to hear arguments on Shanley's motion in Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday.

Shanley was once known for being a "street priest" who reached out to troubled children and homosexuals.
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© Copyright 2008 Associated Press.