Central Catholic sex abuse demonstration will unveil new allegations from 1960s incident

By Jill Harmacinski
Eagle-Tribune
May 1, 2017

http://www.eagletribune.com/news/central-catholic-sex-abuse-demonstration-will-unveil-new-allegations-from/article_49a76874-2e70-11e7-bd74-8b5e2cd8d4d9.html

LAWRENCE — An international group that supports sexual abuse survivors will be on the public sidewalk in front of Central Catholic High School in Lawrence late Monday morning.

The group, Road to Recovery, is coming to the city after Central Catholic administrator Andrew Nikonchuk was fired last Tuesday due to allegations that he drugged and raped a student in 2006.

Road to Recovery is also exposing new information and allegations regarding sexual abuse of a boy by a priest at St. Patrick's Church and members of a Catholic order of brothers who worked at Central Catholic High School in the 1960s, said Dr. Robert Hoatson, founder and leader of Road to Recovery.

"In light of this new information, we will still be at Central Catholic, but not rallying so much as exposing this latest disturbing information," Hoatson told The Eagle-Tribune.

According to a Road to Recovery statement, the male who said he was sexually abused is represented by attorney Mitchell Garabedian of Boston. Garabedian has handled thousands of sexual abuse cases, many involving clergy.

Hoatson said the Boston Archdiocesan priest and three of the Marist Brothers have been publicly named in past lawsuits before.

The allegations include sexual abuse of the boy:

— By the priest in the mid-1960s in the rectory of St. Patrick’s Parish, when the boy was 10 to 11 years old.

— By one of the brothers in a room at Central Catholic High School in the late 1960s when the boy was 14 to 15 years old.

— By another one of the brothers, who was teacher, in a room at Central Catholic and at least one other location in the late 1960s when the boy was 15.

— By a third brother in a room at Central Catholic in the late 1960s when the boy was 15.

— By a fourth brother, who was not identified by Road to Recovery, in a room at Central Catholic High School in the late 1960s when the boy was 14.

The Road to Recovery demonstration is expected to start at 11 a.m. Monday.

Nikonchuk, 36, of Lowell was fired by Central Catholic for violating “the school’s policies pertaining to appropriate social boundaries between students and faculty, ” school officials said.

Nikonchuk was Central Catholic director of curriculum and instruction when he was fired. The firing happened after a former Central student, a male who graduated in 2008, reported the incident to authorities on April 20. The Middlesex district attorney is investigating the allegations. No criminal charges have been filed.

Nikonchuk also served as the academic adviser to student athletes on the school’s hockey team.