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List of Accused Priests in Lafayette Diocese Grows to 42

By Claire Taylor
Lafayette Daily Advertiser
January 16, 2019

https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2019/01/15/list-of-priests-accused-lafayette-catholic-diocese-sexual-abuse/2583212002/

The number of priests accused of sexually abusing children may be much higher than the 15 previously acknowledged by the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette.

As early as 2014, former Diocese of Lafayette Bishop Michael Jarrell acknowledged at least 15 priests had been accused of sexual abuse.

Some were deceased, one was no longer a priest and none were still serving in ministry, Jarrell said.

Neither Jarrell nor his successor, Bishop Douglas Deshotel, would release the list of names, despite repeated requests from The Daily Advertiser and other local news media.

A KATC-TV 3 investigative team, however, found 42 priests and a few non-clergy associated with the Diocese of Lafayette with credible accusations of sexual abuse against them.

Defrocked priest Gilbert Gauthe leaves jail in 2000. (Photo: Daily Advertiser)

According to the KATC report, the team reviewed public records regarding criminal charges, civil lawsuit settlements, diocesan statements and evidence in court cases to compile its list.

The Daily Advertiser has not confirmed the names on the KATC list.

After other dioceses in the country, including the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, made public the names of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse, Deshotel — as recently as Friday — said the Lafayette diocese is going through 50 years of documents to compile its list.

Former Bishop Michael Jarrell, right, and Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel during a press conference. (Photo: Lee Celano, Lee Celano/The Advertiser)

In 2004, Jarrell admitted the Diocese of Lafayette and its insurers paid about $26 million to 123 victims of priests who served in the diocese between 1950 and 2002. Still, he declined to release the names of the priests.

The first widely known case of pedophilia by a Catholic priest took place in the Diocese of Lafayette and involved former priest Gilbert Gauthe.

Gauthe admitted to raping and sodomizing 37 children as early as 1972. He pleaded guilty in 1986 to 11 counts of child molestation. Gauthe was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was released a decade early. He was later arrested for abuse of a child in Texas.

Accused child sex offenders previously reported by the Advertiser include Gauthe, Lane Fontenot, Robert Limoges, David Primeaux, Stanley Begnaud, Lloyd Hebert, Harry Quick, John Anthony Mary Engbers, Aldeo Gilbert and Valerie Pullman.

Former Diocese of Lafayette priest Gilbert Gauthe pleaded guilty in 1986 to 11 counts of child molestation. (Photo: Gannett Louisiana)

 

 

 

 

 




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