PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
Allison Steele, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: Monday, January 14, 2013
The trial of a priest and former parochial-school teacher charged with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy at a Northeast parish in the late 1990s opened this morning in Common Pleas Court, with prosecutors portraying the men as predators who shattered the boy’s childhood, and caused him to turn to drugs to numb his pain.
Defense attorneys told jurors that the boy, identified in a grand jury report as “Billy Doe,” has told many different versions of the abuse since reporting it in 2010. They described him as a troubled, now-24-year-old man who has spent his life in and out of jail and drug treatment programs.
Defense attorney Michael McGovern, who represents the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, also spoke of a “presumption of guilt” sweeping the country when in comes to Catholic priests.
“People look at a Roman collar and they see a bulls-eye,” McGovern said Monday in his opening statements.
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