MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe
By Michael Levenson GLOBE STAFF JULY 25, 2017
Paul R. Shanley, a former “street priest” who became one of the most notorious figures in the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal, is set to be released from prison this week, after serving 12 years behind bars for raping a Sunday school student in the early 1980s.
Middlesex prosecutors said they had hoped to have Shanley, 86, declared a “sexually dangerous person” which would require him to remain behind bars after his sentence was completed. But two doctors who examined the defrocked priest found that he did not meet the required criteria, prosecutors said.
“We are awaiting their final reports,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office said in a statement Tuesday. “However, both doctors have informed us that they have concluded that Shanley does not satisfy the legal criteria for a petition to be filed.”
As a result, Shanley is set to be released from Old County Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Bridgewater. He will be monitored by the state Probation Department for the next 10 years and has been ordered to have no contact with children under the age of 16, Ryan’s office said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.