MA: Thank You God!

This was a real nailbiter of a trial. With the prosecution down to only one remaining witness, and his testimony based on "repressed" memories, it was iffy whether the jury would convict notorious pedophile former priest (and NAMBLA-phile) Paul Shanley.

After days of deliberations, the jury made the right call: conviction. Let's hope this conviction marks a turning point in the effort to bring others to justice once and for all:


(Boston Herald) CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, the most notorious figure in the sex scandal that rocked the Boston Archdiocese, was found guilty Monday of repeatedly molesting a boy at his church during the 1980s.
The conviction on all four charges gives prosecutors a high-profile victory in their effort to bring pedophile priests to justice for decades of abuse at Roman Catholic parishes around the country.
The victim, now 27, put his head down as the verdicts were announced after a trial that turned on the reliability of what he claimed were recovered memories of the long-ago abuse. Shanley showed no emotion as he stood next to his attorneys.
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated about 13 hours over five days before reaching its verdict in a case that turned on the reliability of the accuser's so-called recovered memories. Shanley, 74, faces up to life in prison for two counts each of child rape and indecent assault and battery on a child.
The accuser broke down on the stand as he testified in graphic detail that Shanley pulled him out of Sunday morning catechism classes and raped and groped him in the church bathroom, the rectory, the confessional and the pews starting when he was 6.