United States: Paul Shanley's child-rape conviction affirmed by the Supreme Judicial Court
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Material that narrows or disputes the record
Appellate history
2010-01-10
Unanimously affirmed (455 Mass. 752).
Record class
Core record
Evidence status
Convicted
Authority role
parish priest running CCD religious-education classes
Organization
Archdiocese of Boston
Archive classification
This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.
The victim was a child in the priest's own religious-education classes — pulled out of catechism to be assaulted.
- Pastoral or clerical authority
- Ritual, oath, or initiation
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2005-02-01 · jury conviction; unanimously affirmed
Massachusetts court; Supreme Judicial Court (Commonwealth v. Shanley, 455 Mass. 752). Former priest Paul Shanley was convicted in February 2005 of indecent assault and statutory rape of a boy abused between 1983 and 1989 during CCD religious-education classes, and sentenced to 12–15 years. The Supreme Judicial Court unanimously affirmed the conviction on 10 January 2010.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- removal of the boy from CCD classes for the assaults
Cited record
Sources
- official court judgment appellate judgment Commonwealth v. Shanley, 455 Mass. 752 (Mass. SJC, 10 Jan. 2010).
The appellate opinion affirming the convictions.
Source provenance
Source access and integrity log
This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.
- Source and tier basis
- https://law.justia.com/cases/massachusetts/supreme-court/volumes/455/455mass752.html Corpus classification: official-court-judgment; evidentiary role: appellate-judgment.
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-27 · Retrieval failed
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
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Related record
Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts
- 2018 · Harrisburg, PA, USA PA grand jury: 301 priests, 1,000+ child victims documented ('weaponized' faith)
- 2009 · Dublin, Ireland Ryan Commission: abuse 'endemic' in Catholic-run institutions (state inquiry)
- 2021 · Paris, France CIASE/Sauvé Report: est. 216,000 abused by French clergy since 1950
- 2019 · Vatican City McCarrick: ex-cardinal found guilty by Vatican canonical process, laicized
- 2010 · Oregon City, OR, USA Beagley faith-healing death: parents convicted (criminally negligent homicide)
- 2014 · Philadelphia, PA, USA Schaible: 3rd-degree murder, second child dead of untreated pneumonia
- 2001 · London, UK Victoria Climbié: murder convictions; possession belief; Laming Inquiry followed
- 2012 · London, UK Kristy Bamu: kindoki 'deliverance' murder convictions (30/25-yr minimums)