Prosecutors: Priest trial verdict a victory

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

[The Philadelphia Archive – BishopAccountability.org]

Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Posted: Wednesday, January 30, 2013, 6:48 PM

In a verdict prosecutors hailed as another victory for the victims of child sexual abuse, a Philadelphia jury has returned guilty verdicts against a Philadelphia priest and a former Catholic schoolteacher charged with the serially sexual assault of a 10-year-old Northeast altar boy in 1998 and 1999.

The Common Pleas Court jury deliberated about 20 hours since getting the case Friday afternoon before returning the verdicts today in the trial of the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero.
Engelhardt, 66, a priest for more than four decades, was found guilty of four of the five charges against him: child endangerment, corruption of a minor, indecent assault and criminal conspiracy. …

Both defense lawyers said they will appeal.

In a news conference after the verdict, District Attorney Seth Williams praised the verdict and noted that one out of four women and one out six men under the age of 18 have been sexually abused.

“The message for me is that we have to listen to children,” Williams added.

Engelhardt and Shero were charged in February 2011 with serial rape of the boy while he was in the fifth and sixth grades in the St. Jerome’s parish school.

The victim – named “Billy Doe” in the 2011 grand jury report about sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests – alleged that Engelhardt, the Rev. Edward V. Avery, 70, and Shero serially raped him when he was in fifth and sixth grades at St. Jerome’s.

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