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Priest linked to Cedar Lake student abuse sentenced in separate case

By Sarah Reese
NWI Times
November 26, 2014

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/priest-linked-to-cedar-lake-student-abuse-sentenced-in-separate/article_3dc0d32e-f032-5232-a3ee-d93e94fa8a05.html

A priest who allegedly sexually abused a boy from the Salesian Preparatory School in Cedar Lake in the 1970s was sentenced Wednesday to eight to 10 years in prison for raping a different boy in Massachusetts, officials said.

The Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, was convicted by a jury Nov. 12 of five counts alleging he sexually assaulted a boy attending a summer camp in 1981 and 1982 at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center in Ipswich, Mass., according to the Essex district attorney's office.

McCormick, who was once head of the Catholic order of priests and brothers, worked at the Massachusetts retreat at the time of the abuse. The victim, who is now 44, was between 10 and 12 years old at the time, prosecutors said.

In 1975, McCormick took a then 14-year-old boy from Cedar Lake on a trip to Rome, where McCormick sexually abused the victim, said attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents both victims.

McCormick was assigned to the Salesian school in Cedar Lake from about 1972 to 1976, Garabedian said. The school closed in 1979.

McCormick never faced criminal charges in the case linked to Cedar Lake.

However, the Salesians settled "in the six figures" after Garabedian sent the order a claim on behalf of the Cedar Lake victim, he said.

 

Contact: sarah.reese@nwi.com




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