Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Newton, Massachusetts, USA · 2005

United States: Paul Shanley's child-rape conviction affirmed by the Supreme Judicial Court

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

parish priest running CCD religious-education classes

Organization

Archdiocese of Boston

Spiritual nexus

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

  1. 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.

Appellate history

  1. 2010-01-10 · undefined

    undefined

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • removal of the boy from CCD classes for the assaults

Primary record

Sources

official court judgment appellate judgment Commonwealth v. Shanley, 455 Mass. 752 (Mass. SJC, 10 Jan. 2010).

The appellate opinion affirming the convictions.

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