WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

Dianne Williamson
dwilliamson@telegram.com

For more than three years, Susan Manter endured humiliating physical abuse from a trusted priest she had turned to for counseling. After she summoned the strength to testify against him in criminal court, friends and fellow parishioners turned their backs on her.

So when the Rev. Charles M. Abdelahad was found guilty May 25 of two counts of assault and battery, she felt only partial vindication. While grateful that the judge believed her, she was disappointed with the sentence — two years in the House of Correction, with just 90 days to serve.

“I did get some satisfaction,” said Manter, of Rutland, a petite mother of three. “But I know what happened in that office and I know what I went through. He got off very easy.”

But the priest was scheduled to get off even easier than she imagined….