Defrocked priest jailed for rape of boy

CAMBRIDGE, Mass - Defrocked priest Paul Shanley has been sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison for raping a boy in the 1980s in one of the most high-profile cases to stem from a US Catholic clergy abuse scandal.

Before the sentencing Shanley's accuser, now a 27-year-old firefighter, described the convicted former priest in court as a "monster" and "the lowest of the low." Judge Stephen Neel then ordered the 74-year-old Shanley to serve 12 to 15 years in prison, followed by a decade of probation.

There was scattered applause when the elderly Shanley was escorted from the packed courtroom in leg irons.

In sentencing Shanley, Neel said he had considered mitigating factors such as the lack of a criminal record and the numerous people who testified to his good work as a priest. But he also noted that Shanley had used his role as a priest to facilitate his crimes.

"It is difficult to imagine a more egregious misuse of authority than that which occurred in this case," Neel said.

The offences occurred when the boy was six to 12 years old.

Neel said Shanley would be eligible for parole after completing two-thirds of his sentence, but Frank Mondano, Shanley's defence attorney, said he was worried Shanley could die in prison "given his age and frailty."

He also expressed concern about his client's safety behind bars -- especially after John Geoghan, another defrocked priest at the centre of the clergy abuse scandal that rocked the Archdiocese of Boston, was slain in prison in 2003 by a fellow inmate.

"Hopefully the Department of Corrections is up to the task," Mondano told reporters, adding he will appeal both the sentence and the conviction.

'SICK' TO THE CORE

A jury found Shanley guilty last week of raping and molesting a boy in the 1980s at a Boston-area church. The case hinged on memories that the accuser said he recovered in 2002.

The accuser, who has asked that he not be identified in the media, said during the sentencing that Shanley's conviction ended a long, painful chapter in his life. Still, he expressed hatred for the man who raped and molested him.

"I'm gonna tell you why this monster must spend the rest of his life in prison," the accuser said in a statement read aloud by prosecutor Lynn Rooney. "He is the lowest of the low."

The accuser, who according to prosecutors was disappointed Shanley did not receive a life sentence, said he wants the ex-priest to die behind bars. "However he dies, I hope it is slow and painful," he said.

Earlier, the victim's wife, who testified during the trial about her husband's emotional breakdown when he remembered the abuse, said in court that Shanley had committed "indescribable crimes."

Weeping, she then addressed the former priest in a quiet but resolute voice.

"No words will ever express my disgust for you," she said. "You are sick to your core."

The victim's father said what Shanley had done to his son could never be fixed. "You robbed my little boy of his innocence," he said.

Shanley was given the chance to speak at the sentencing, but declined. However, his friend Paul Shannon called the sentence and the conviction a "travesty" and defended the former priest to reporters afterward.

"My life is better because I knew Paul Shanley," he said.

Prosecutors said if Shanley is eventually released from prison, they will seek to have him committed under civil law as a sexually dangerous predator.

The Vatican defrocked Shanley last year, more than two decades after his superiors received complaints about the priest's views on sex between men and boys.

Internal church documents released in 2002 showed the Boston Archdiocese knew in 1979 that Shanley had attended a meeting of men involved in sexual relationships with boys -- a meeting that gave rise to NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association.

- REUTERS