PORTLAND (ME)
Portland Press Herald
November 29, 2018
By Megan Gray
A former Boston priest was found guilty Thursday of sexually abusing a boy during trips to Maine in the 1980s.
Ronald Paquin, 76, was found guilty on 11 of 24 counts of sexual misconduct.
The counts that led to the guilty verdict were based on the testimony of one of two men who accused Paquin in sometimes graphic detail during the three-day trial. He was not found guilty of abusing the other man.
The York County jury deliberated for nearly five fours Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. The former clergyman did not react as the forewoman announced the split verdict in a quiet but firm voice.
Paquin was one of the priests exposed in the early 2000s by a sweeping Boston Globe investigation into clergy sex abuse. He served more than a decade in prison in Massachusetts for repeatedly raping an altar boy between 1989 and 1992, beginning when the victim was 12.
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His trial is believed to be the first in Maine for a priest embroiled in the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal, and he now faces prison time again as an elderly man for his conviction.
Roger Champagne, one of Paquin’s two attorneys, said he wants the former priest to undergo a medical evaluation before sentencing. Court documents have suggested Paquin is in poor health. The judge did not set a date for the next hearing.
The jury of five women and seven men had listened to the pained testimony of the two accusers on Monday and Tuesday.
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