BRIDGEWATER, Mass. (AP) — Protesters are vowing to demonstrate outside the Massachusetts prison where a notorious figure in the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal is being released after completing a 12-year sentence for raping a boy in the 1980s.
Paul Shanley is expected to be released from the Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater on Friday.
Shanley was a “street priest” who ministered to alienated youth in the 1960s and `70s. Decades later, dozens of men came forward and said Shanley had molested or raped them. He was defrocked by the Vatican and convicted of raping a boy at a Newton parish.
After serving 12 years for rape, doctors are determined that 86-year-old Shanley is no longer ‘sexually dangerous.’
Sexual abuse victims say they’re concerned the 86-year-old Shanley will not have enough supervision after he’s released. He’ll be monitored by probation officials, but isn’t required to wear an electronic monitoring device.
Attorney’s representing Shanley’s victims say no one is safe with him on the street.
“He’s gonna be molesting again,” said Mitchell Garabedian, one sex abuse survivor’s attorney, “its not a maybe.”
There is no word on where Shanley will be going. His location will be updated on the sex offender registry within 24 hours of him being out.
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