Defrocked Catholic priest Paul Shanley is expected to face a former parishioner who claims he was raped as a child 20 years ago.

Jurors in Cambridge, Mass., are expected to hear testimony from Shanley's unnamed accuser, whose recovered memories prompted him to come forward three years ago with sexual-assault allegations against the disgraced Boston-area priest.

Shanley faces life in prison on three counts of child rape and two counts of assault and battery for the incidents, which allegedly occurred between 1983 and 1989 when he was assigned to St. John the Evangelist Parish in Newton, Mass.

The accuser, now 27, claims Shanley began raping him when he was 6 years old and continued for six years, just before Shanley was granted medical leave and transferred to San Bernardino, Calif.

Story continues

advertisement

The relocation proved crucial to Shanley's prosecution. Many revived sexual-assault allegations fail to make it to criminal court because of statutes of limitation, but Shanley's move to California stopped the clock in Massachusetts and enabled his accuser to raise criminal charges.

The accuser is one of four alleged victims from the Newton, Mass., parish who came forward in 2002 to disclose the abuse to Middlesex District Attorney's Child Abuse Unit.

Shanley originally faced 10 counts of child rape and six counts of indecent assault and battery charges under a June 2002 indictment. The alleged incidents occurred between 1979 and 1989.

In July 2004, Middlesex County Assistant District Attorneys dropped charges pertaining to two of Shanley's accusers. Then, on Jan. 18, the state dropped charges pertaining to another alleged victim when prosecutors claimed they were unable to locate him.

All four male accusers received undisclosed civil payouts from the Boston Archdiocese in April 2004, though a source told the Associated Press the amount was more than $300,000 each.

The allegations against the priest once known as Boston's "hippie preacher" became a lightning rod for the growing sexual-abuse scandal beleaguering the Catholic Church in the United States.

The accusations against Shanley in 2002 came on the heels of the conviction of defrocked Boston-area priest John Geoghan, who was accused of abusing a young parishioner. Geoghan was murdered in his jail cell in August 2003.

Both Massachusetts cases were buttressed by the release of internal documents from the Boston Archdiocese indicating that the state's top prelate, Cardinal Bernard Law, had failed to take action on previous complaints against the priests.

Law resigned in December 2002 amid widespread public accusations of turning a complicit eye to warnings that dated as far back as 1966.

With documents in the Shanley case under seal, the church's documents, which go back to the days when Shanley ran a street ministry for runaways, drifters and drug addicts, provide the only insight into the case.

In the 1960s and '70s, Shanley earned a reputation ministering to the disenfranchised, which often put him in contact with young people.

One of the first known complaints against Shanley was brought to the diocese's attention in 1966, when an unnamed boy claimed Shanley had masturbated him at a youth camp in Blue Hills, Mass.

Shanley attracted controversy again in 1977 at a speech he gave in Rochester, N.Y., in which he allegedly made comments condoning pedophilia, incest and bestiality, according to a complaint letter sent to the diocese.

Over the years, Shanley made more public comments challenging the Church's stance on homosexuality, the documents show. They also indicate that the diocese, under orders from Law and his top deputies, shuttled Shanley from parish to parish.

Other redacted documents mention payouts from the diocese to accusers after complaints of sexual assault against Shanley.

Shanley's lawyer, Frank Mondano, did not return calls, but has indicated in prior statements that the defense will take issue with the credibility and motives of the accuser, considering the allegations are 15 to 20 years old.

The trial will be aired live on Court TV.