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  Former Altar Boys Testify at Priest Sex Abuse Trial

WCAX
August 21, 2008

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=8881162&nav=menu183_17_6_5

The jury in Vermont's third priest sex abuse lawsuit could begin deliberations by Friday.


The plaintiff is a former altar boy who claims former Vermont Bishop John Marshall knowingly failed to protect him from pedophile priest Edward Paquette 30 years ago. He is one of 18 former altar boys who have filed suit making the same claim.


Thursday, four of the others told the jury what Paquette did to them when they were 10 and 11 years old.


"While walking down the stairs by the gymnasium where I was supposed to serve Mass, at the bottom of the stairs there was a bathroom there, Father Paquette was there with his pants down around his ankles fully exposed," one former altar boy said.


The Diocese has settled three of the cases out-of-court for more than a million dollars. The Diocese also lost two cases that went to jury trial. One of them this year when a jury awarded a Paquette victim a record $8.7 million in damages.

 
 

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