PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)
Priest jailed for child abuse recants guilty plea and claims he didn’t rape the altar boy but was afraid of getting a longer sentence
An imprisoned ex-priest at the center of a landmark Roman Catholic priest-abuse case testified Thursday that he pleaded guilty to a sexual assault he didn’t commit.
Edward Avery, 70, admitted to an earlier abuse complaint, but he said he never had any contact with the accuser in an ongoing criminal trial. He said he took a plea deal in which he admitted assaulting the man because he didn’t want to risk a longer sentence if convicted at trial.
Asked if he raped the 24-year-old policeman’s son, Avery said: ‘I did not. So help me God.’
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