‘How did I miss it?’: Family of Baker victim, in mourning for a son and brother, applauds efforts to identify child abusers

HARRISBURG (PA)
The Tribune-Democrat

August 20, 2018

By Dave Sutor

For about an hour on Tuesday, Cindy Leech sat on a stage inside the Pennsylvania State Capitol, holding a framed picture of her son, Corey Leech, with his shock of sandy-colored hair and broad smile.

She listened as Attorney General Josh Shapiro publicly released a grand jury report that exposed decades of child sexual abuse and cover-up in six of the commonwealth’s Roman Catholic dioceses.

She was joined by more than a dozen other victims or family members of those who have died.

The resident of Johnstown’s Roxbury neighborhood was invited to the event to honor her son, who played a significant role in the process of the investigation before his death in May 2017.

Corey Leech anonymously testified that he was sexually abused by Brother Stephen Baker, when Leech was a student at what was then Bishop McCort High School, in a hearing to determine if the friar’s superiors at the Third Order Regular, Province of the Immaculate Conception – the Revs. Robert D’Aversa, Giles Schinelli and Anthony Criscitelli – failed to properly protect children from the predator.

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