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  Priest Admits to Molesting Male Student in '70s

By Theresa Conroy
Philadelphia Daily News [Philadelphia PA]
February 9, 2005

A Catholic priest yesterday admitted in Common Pleas Court to sexually abusing a 15-year-old North Catholic High School student in the 1970s.

The Rev. James J. Behan, 60, pleaded guilty before Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and corrupting the morals of a minor.

Behan, a priest of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, faces a maximum of 25 years in prison. His sentencing was scheduled for May 24.

Behan's victim, Martin Donohoe, now 41, did not attend yesterday's proceeding, but plans to testify during the sentencing, said prosecutor Maureen McCartney. She said the priest's plea saved the victim from the "harrowing experience" of testifying during a trial.

"There certainly is a level of satisfaction in having him stand up in court and acknowledge what he did," McCartney said.

Behan's attorney, Michael McGovern, could not be reached for comment.

During an August preliminary hearing, Donohoe, of Burlington County, testified that Behan's abuse lasted more than two years. The first attack happened after Behan invited Donohoe to sleep over at his Front Street rectory.

The abuse - which included performing oral sex on Donohoe inside the rectory - ended in 1981, when Donohoe was 17 and told the priest to stop, "because it's wrong."

Behan was a North Catholic religion teacher at the time. His sexual contact with Donohoe began when the teen was just a freshman at the school.

Behan's religious order transferred him to North Carolina in 1980.

Behan was the first and, so far, only priest indicted by the Philadelphia grand jury investigating the clergy sex scandal. The investigation is continuing, McCartney said.

According to the grand jury, the priest sexually abused Donohoe a dozen times, including after he had been transferred out of the city. The grand jury presentment also said Behan admitted his crime to officials in the Raleigh diocese.

"It was a continuing course of conduct," McCartney said.

 
 

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