BishopAccountability.org
 
  Chilling Testimony of Abusive Priest Opens Sex Scandal Trial

By Angelo Bruscas
Examiner
May 13, 2009

http://www.examiner.com/x-6959-Seattle-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m5d13-Chilling-testimony-of-abusive-priest-opens-sex-scandal-trial

O'Donnell in Spokane

The decades-old sex scandal that is now putting the Seattle Archdiocese on trial provided chilling and emotionally packed testimony in its dramatic first day.

Here is video from KING-TV -- http://www.king5.com/video/featured-index.html?nvid=360952 -- that shows former priest Patrick O'Donnell “matter-of-factly” admitting he molested young boys who attended his parishes during the 1970s. At one point, O’Donnell, who was transferred from the Spokane Roman Catholic Diocese to Seattle, admits the number of boys he molested was more than 30 and more than he can even account for.

Two of those victims, now in their 40s, watched tearfully in King County Superior Court, where they have brought a civil lawsuit that claims the Seattle Archdiocese did nothing to protect them and others from sexual abuse when O’Donnell “was kicked out of the Spokane diocese to get treatment for his sexual urges” and sent to Saint Paul's parish in the Rainier Beach area.

Coming up in the trial will be testimony from former Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, who is accused in the suit of knowing about O’Donnell’s sexual problems and then doing nothing to stop him from preying on more young boys.

KING reporter Chris Daniels notes that attorneys for the Seattle Archdiocese say O'Donnell “was never part of their organization, no one issued a warning to Hunthausen or anyone else, and it didn't hear any allegations of sex abuse until decades later.”

O’Donnell, now 66, fully admits he molested the boys, and The Seattle Times reports he even addressed his two victims in court: “At one point in his testimony, O'Donnell leaned to the side of the witness stand and looked directly at the two men. ‘I'm extremely sorry,’ he said. ‘I don't expect forgiveness.’"

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.