MASSACHUSETTS
Eagle-Tribune

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

David Clohessy

Only one predator priest appears in “Spotlight,” the already acclaimed film about clergy sex crimes and coverups in the Boston Archdiocese that opens next month. He’s the now-defrocked Ronald H. Paquin.

That’s fortuitous, because just weeks ago, Paquin walked out of prison.

Paquin is known to have sexually abused more than 40 boys. Once, with four boys in his car, he crashed. One boy died, and another was badly injured. The surviving boys later said he had been drinking while driving.

Weeks ago, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said “Paquin poses a danger to the community.”

Sadly, however, two state experts disagree. In light of their psychiatric evaluations, the ex-priest cannot be civilly committed to a lock-down center for sexual predators.

So after a decade behind bars, Paquin has been freed from prison. What now?