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  Priest Sentenced on Sex Assault Charges

Associated Press State & Local Wire [Stroudsburg, Pa]
July 16, 2003

A Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old male student was sentenced Wednesday to 1 1/2 to 4 years in prison.

The Rev. Richard J. Cochrane, who taught theology for 24 years at Malvern Preparatory School near Philadelphia, pleaded no contest in January in Monroe County Court to a charge of statutory sexual assault.

In 1999, the boy testified at a preliminary hearing that he and a friend took a weekend trip to the Poconos with Cochrane in June 1991. The boy testified that he drank beer, watched a pornographic movie and later fell asleep, then awoke to find Cochrane performing a sex act on him.

A second alleged victim came forward and testified that he was assaulted by Cochrane in the spring of 1990, but his case never made it to court because the statute of limitations expired.

Cochrane left Malvern Prep after the first boy came forth with the allegations.

 
 

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