PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive
BY IVEY DEJESUS & CHRISTIAN ALEXANDERSEN
ALTOONA – The abuse was rampant, horrific, complicit and concealed, and even at times dismissed by law enforcement officials.
Those are some of the highlights that emerged from a grand jury report that found more than 50 priests and religious leaders of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown sexually molested hundreds of children over the course of four decades.
The findings of the two-year investigation, announced Tuesday in Blair County by Attorney General Kathleen Kane, provide a graphic account of the abuse of hundreds of boys and girls – the youngest of them 8 years old – dating to the 1950s.
Some of the most damning (and graphic) evidence included in the grand jury report:
The abuse was rampant.
More than 50 priests and religious leaders, including monsignors, were named and implicated among the reams of evidence culled from victim testimony and documents seized from the diocese.
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