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  'I Believe True Justice Will Find You after Your Time on Earth'

Boston Globe [Cambridge MA]
February 16, 2005

Excerpts from statements by the victim (read by a prosecutor) and by his wife and father in Middlesex Superior Court yesterday prior to the sentencing of Paul R. Shanley:

"The day the verdict was read was the beginning of the rest of my life. For the first time in almost three years, I went to bed with a smile from ear to ear. That lasted for several days! . . . I came here to hear you say that Paul Shanley is gonna die in prison. I want him to die in prison, whether it's of natural causes or otherwise. However he dies, I hope it's slow and painful!"

-- Victim

"I live day to day hoping that I will not lose my husband, hoping he will not slip back into the silent sadness he has battled through these past three years. Feb. 11 is a day that changed my life forever. On that day, Paul relived in flashes what Paul Shanley did to him over a decade before. On Jan. 26, 27, 28 in this courtroom, on that stand, he again relived that devastation. . . . Shanley, no words will ever explain my disgust for you. You are a coward who hid behind God. Your robe, nor your wit, nor your charm make you infallible. Sadly, you will probably never face the reality of your disturbed existence. I believe true justice will find you after your time on earth is spent."

-- Victim's wife

"To you, Shanley, what you did to my son can never be fixed. A priest is supposed to help people, not hurt them. A priest is supposed to be a role model for children, not prey on them. . . . You robbed my little boy of his innocence. You destroyed his understanding of good and bad and right and wrong. You took his faith away. You also took some of my faith away, not in God, but in the church. I hope that you do a lot of thinking and talk to your God, which must be a different God, because my God would never allow this to happen. When you're sitting in your cell, you can ask my God for forgiveness."

-- Victim's father

 
 

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