FLORIDA
JRN
[with video]
By Gabrielle Sarann. CREATED Sep 24, 2014
FORT MYERS, Fla. – On Tuesday, the Diocese of Venice said it never received a complaint from a family that a now-convicted sex offender had sexually assaulted their son three years ago. But today the Diocese is clarifying its statement. Now they’re admitting the family did speak up but not in a formal report.
From the outside, St. Francis Xavier Church in Fort Myers looks like a place of peace. But for Isabelle and Sisto Romano, it’s been anything but.
“Very hurtful, hurtful beyond words,” said Isabelle, who was baptized at the church and just left a teaching job there of 16 years. “I gave them my all. My life was there. My family’s life was there.”
She says they immediately notified the church in 2011 that their son had been sexually assaulted by Robert Little. At the time, a Eucharistic minister. Now a convicted child molester in a separate case.
“This is my son, they’re picking on a 14-year-old boy today that was 10 or 11-years-old back then,” added Sisto.
Yesterday, the Diocese of Venice denied the Romano’s claim saying it never received a complaint of an assault from them. But today, the church backpedaled. In a statement, it said the couple reported that their son “felt uncomfortable” in the presence of Little. But that although they were “… encouraged to make a formal report to the Diocese Victim Assistance Coordinator the couple declined to do so.”
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