MASSACHUSETTS
South Coast Today
By Steve Urbon
surbon@s-t.com
Posted Jan. 21, 2015 @ 2:29 pm
FAIRHAVEN — A town resident is one of two men who have filed sexual abuse lawsuits in Bristol Superior Court against priests within the Diocese of Fall River, alleging they failed for years to properly supervise and protect children from a predatory priest, identified as the late James R. Nickel.
The Fairhaven plaintiff, in his 40s, is maintaining anonymity. He charges that he was abused during the 1980s at St. Mary’s parish in Fairhaven, where Nickel was assigned for several years by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, based on Adams Street.
The second plaintiff, Brian Blackmore, now in his mid-50s, living in Orlando, Florida and unrelated to the first, once lived on Cape Cod, where he alleges the abuse took place at the Holy Trinity Church in West Harwich.
Two of the order’s priests still living in Fairhaven were accused of inadequate supervision: Gabriel Healey and William Heffron.
Also accused are two as yet unnamed priests, along with former Fall River Bishop Daniel Cronin, who now lives in Connecticut.
The suits, filed on New Year’s Eve by prominent abuse victims attorney Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, seek undisclosed damages.
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