Feb 7, 2005 / 22:00 pm
One of the most high-profile clergy sex-abuse cases finally came to a close yesterday with the conviction of defrocked priest Paul Shanley.
Shanley, who was defrocked by the Vatican last year, was convicted on two counts of child rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child.
The main plaintiff in the case was a 27-year-old firefighter who said Shanley raped and molested him at a Boston-area church in the 1980s. Reuters reported that the firefighter said he had forgotten about the abuse, but that the memories came back in 2002 as the sex-abuse scandal erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston. He received $500,000 last year as a settlement of his civil lawsuit against the archdiocese.
After the verdict, Judge Stephen Neel revoked Shanley's bail and he was taken into custody. Sentencing of the 74-year-old is scheduled for Feb. 15.