MASSACHUSETTS
Salem News
BY JULIE MANGANIS STAFF WRITER
IPSWICH — Three decades ago, the Rev. Richard McCormick took his innocence and his faith, said the now-grown victim of repeated rapes by McCormick.
On Wednesday, a jury and a judge took McCormick’s freedom.
McCormick, 73, was put into custody moments after a Lawrence Superior Court jury found him guilty of five counts of child rape, charges stemming from incidents at a camp operated by McCormick’s religious order, the Salesian Society of North America, in Ipswich.
McCormick, who denies the abuse, his lawyer said during the trial, faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 18. Each count carries a potential life term.
Judge Robert Cornetta, who filled in for trial Judge Mary Lou Rup Wednesday, granted prosecutor Kate MacDougall’s request to revoke McCormick’s bail. Prior to his arrest, McCormick was living at a home for retired Salesian priests in New Rochelle, New York. While out on bail awaiting trial, he was living at the Vianney Renewal Center outside St. Louis, Missouri, a facility for priests accused of sexual abuse.
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