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CNN Live Today

Shanley to Be Arraigned on Rape, Assault Charges

Aired July 10, 2002 - 12:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PHILLIPS: A priest at the center of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal scheduled to be arraigned in the next hour. The Reverend Paul Shanley is charged with Child Rape and Indecent Assault.

CNN's Bill Delaney is at the county courthouse outside of Boston with more -- Bill.

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, thank you, Kyra. Yes, Paul Shanley, former priest, now 71 years old, will be arraigned at Middlesex Superior Court, here behind me, in about an hour or so, arraigned on charges already brought in an indictment from a grand jury a few weeks ago.

The charges are ten counts of child rape, six counts of indecent assault and battery on a minor under 14. Former priest Shanley, one of the more notorious of some 90 priests in the Boston Archdiocese, now accused of sexual misconduct with the young over the past 40 years.

Four complainants in this criminal complaint, two of them, Gregory Ford, and Paul Busa, Kyra, allege that from the age of six, they were repeatedly sexually molested, indeed raped by Shanley for six years, from the age of six at St. John the Evangelist Church in Newton during the 1980s. Newton is a town just outside of Boston.

Now Father Shanley's case has embroiled the archbishop here, the embattled Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law. He's accused of having been alerted to Shanley's activities during the 1980s and not doing anything about it.

Cardinal Law says he knew nothing about the sexual allegations against Paul Shanley until 1993, when Cardinal Law says he immediately alerted a parish in San Bernardino, California, where he had recommended a transfer by Shanley in the early '90s and Shanley was then very quickly pulled from the ministry. But, allegations continue to swirl around Cardinal Law, that he knew earlier and should have done something about it. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Bill Delaney, we'll follow that with you. Thank you.

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