Prosecution: Priest targeted then assaulted boy, 10

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

JOSEPH A. SLOBODZIAN, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
POSTED: Thursday, February 27, 2014

The sex assault trial of the Rev. Andrew McCormick opened Thursday with the prosecutor saying the evidence will show that the Catholic priest targeted, groomed and assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy in his room in the rectory of a Northeast Philadelphia parish.

“No 41-year-old man has the right to touch a child,” Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp told the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury in her opening statement.

Kemp said the alleged victim will testify about how McCormick asked him to become an altar boy in 1997 at St. John Cantius parish in Bridesburg.

“In a strong, hard-core Catholic neighborhood, this was a huge honor,” Kemp said.

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