MASSACHUSETTS
MassLive
By Jim Russell
Special to The Republican
WARE — With the arrival of a defrocked ex-priest convicted of child rape, a quarter-mile, one-way street in town is now home to another sex offender — angering residents who question why their neighborhood has become a magnet for criminals released from prison.
Paul Shanley, convicted in 2005 for the 1980s rape of a boy inside a Newton parish, saw the end of his prison sentence this week and moved into an apartment at 31 Pulaski St. According to the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board, 24 sex offenders reside in Ware, including five on Pulaski Street alone.
“I would like to have known a rapist is moving in next to me,”said, Jessica Welch, 25, in an interview outside her Pulaski Street home. “I would like to have known before it happened; it angers me — I don’t want to live next door to that.”
Sara Wall, 28, was standing on the sidewalk near the multi-family home of her new neighbor, holding her 19-month-old girl. “As long as he keeps to himself, I’m OK with it,” she said. “But this whole building, the landlord is constantly renting to sex offenders.”
The state registry includes Joel Pentlarge among the sex offenders residing in Ware, and it lists his work address as “31-33 Pulaski St.” Pentlarge, who used to maintain a law office on Prospect St. in town, was convicted in 2000 of “rape and abuse of a child,” according to the registry.
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