Priest pleads not guilty to child rape in Salem

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

By O’Ryan Johnson And Matt Stout
Friday, August 31, 2012

SALEM — A former head of a Catholic order facing child rape charges had bail set at $1,000 this morning in Salem District Court.

Father Richard McCormick, arrested yesterday in New Rochelle, N.Y., pleaded not guilty to five counts of a rape of a child, charges stemming from the alleged repeated sexual assaults of a victim, then 11 and 12 years old, during 1981 and 1982 in Ipswich, according to the Essex County district attorney’s office.

McCormick, 68, an active priest with no public duties, will reside at his order in New Rochelle and was banned by Judge Timothy Feeley from any unsupervised contact with minors. He was also told to stay away from the all-boys high school that is 100 yards away from the order.

McCormick has a decades-old history of alleged abuse that includes nine civil cases — including five from Boston dating back to the 1960s — but before now, had never been charged criminally, a lawyer representing the victims told the Herald.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.