Expert testifies that local priest who raped child remains a danger

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Milton J. Valencia GLOBE STAFF JULY 31, 2015

SALEM — A forensic psychologist for the state Department of Correction testified Friday that a former Catholic priest who was at the center of the abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese more than a decade ago remains a dangerous sexual predator who should stay in prison even though he has completed his sentence.

“He targeted adolescent boys that he felt were disadvantaged, came from disadvantage homes,” said Gregg Belle, a private forensic examiner who specializes in reviewing sexual offenders, and does contractual work for the state prison system.

Belle told an Essex Superior Court judge that the former priest, Ronald H. Paquin, “readily acknowledges he has always been sexually attracted to teenage boys.”

Paquin, now 72, had pleaded guilty in 2002 and was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in state prison for repeatedly raping a Haverhill altar boy between 1989 and 2002. There were at least 50 incidents of assault. Paquin completed his sentence, for three counts of rape of a child, in May.

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