PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
BY JOHN P. MARTIN
Inquirer Staff Writer
DURING THREE hours of emotional and sometimes contentious testimony, a former Bucks County altar boy on Wednesday described how a priest in the landmark child-sex-abuse and conspiracy trial molested him during an overnight visit when he was 14.
The man, now 30, broke down several times recounting a 1996 assault by the Rev. James J. Brennan that he said plunged him into a spiral of drugs and crime and still haunts him.
He said Brennan, his onetime parish priest and a longtime family friend, showed him online sex-chat rooms, proposed that they masturbate and ordered him into a bed where, clad in plaid boxer shorts, the cleric pulled him close and pressed his private parts against the boy.
“He kept pulling me forward, forward, forward,” the witness said, fighting tears. “I couldn’t get off the bed. I still feel the sensation today. It’s horrible.”
The testimony didn’t stand unchallenged.
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