PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter
by Brian Roewe | Jan. 17, 2013
In March, former Philadelphia priest Edward Avery pleaded guilty to conspiracy and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy; he was sentences to two-and-a-half to five years in prison.
On Thursday, Avery recanted that guilty plea, a development that could have serious ramifications for the landmark conviction of Philadelphia archdiocesan Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first U.S. church official to serve jail time for his handling of abuse claims.
The revelation came in testimony during in the first week of the trial of Fr. Charles Engelhardt and former Catholic school teacher Bernard Shero, both alleged to have abused the same altar boy Avery had previously admitted to assaulting.
According to multiple reports from the courtroom, Avery took the stand and testified he pleaded guilty only to avoid a longer sentence. The defrocked priest has been in prison since that plea March 22, four days before he was scheduled to stand trial alongside Lynn and Fr. James J. Brennan.
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