CONNECTICUT
Norwich Bulletin
By Ryan Blessing
rblessing@norwichbulletin.com, (860) 425-4205
Posted Aug. 31, 2016
NORWICH — A 37-year-old Woodstock man has filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Norwich alleging he was sexually assaulted hundreds of times by a priest while serving as an altar boy during the 1990s.
The complaint, filed earlier this month in New London Superior Court, claims the priest, Paul Hebert, hand-picked the plaintiff, Jonathan Roy, to be an altar boy at age 11.
It alleges Hebert, now deceased, began sexually abusing the boy on church grounds and at the rectory, “on the premise that he was engaging in priestly duties with the Plaintiff.”
The diocese previously settled two lawsuits brought by men who were molested by Hebert when he served at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Pawcatuck from 1971 to 1981.
The new complaint states that Hebert coerced the victim with alcohol and lavish gifts in exchange for his silence. It claims Hebert sexually assaulted him hundreds of times between 1990 and 1996, and that he photographed and videotaped the abuse.
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