WORCESTER (MA)
This Week in Worcester [Worcester, MA]
October 7, 2026
By Tom Marino
Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus planned to move the Rev. Alan J. Martineau to another parish after a teenage parishioner accused the priest of inappropriate touching, according to court records The Boston Globe reported Wednesday, Oct. 7.
A diocesan social worker reported the allegations to the state Department of Children and Families before the transfer took effect. Nearly five months passed between the day McManus first heard the accusations and the day the diocese contacted authorities, the Globe found.
Martineau became the only priest prosecuted as a result of Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s investigation into the dioceses of Worcester, Fall River and Springfield. Campbell’s office released the findings Tuesday, Sept. 30. The report tied 90 accused clergy members to 216 survivors in the Worcester Diocese alone.
The Globe obtained the court records after a judge impounded them. A search for the case in the state’s public court database returns no records.
McManus learned of the allegations no later than Sept. 9, 2021, when he met with Martineau and the Rev. Alfredo Porras, the priest who first heard the girl’s account. She was 14 when the alleged touching began in 2019, according to the records. Martineau told Porras he had held the girl’s hand and might have kissed her forehead, and he denied other allegations.
In the weeks that followed, the girl gave Porras a written note describing prolonged hugging and kissing. Investigators later found that Martineau and the girl exchanged about 80,000 text messages between 2019 and 2021.
The girl’s family lived rent-free on the grounds of St. Stanislaus Parish in West Warren in exchange for work on church property. Her parents told police that Martineau, who ran the parish, cut off their internet service and tried to stop their oil deliveries after the allegations surfaced.
At the end of December 2021, the diocese announced that Martineau would move to St. George Parish in Worcester. In a Dec. 12, 2022, statement, the diocese said it had scheduled the transfer so Martineau could “benefit from the tutelage of a seasoned pastor” because of concerns about boundary issues with a minor.
Judith Audette, the diocese’s victim assistance coordinator, kept corresponding with the girl, who described additional contact by email. Audette, a licensed social worker and mandated reporter, notified DCF in late January and early February 2022. McManus then placed Martineau on leave, and the diocese notified the Worcester County district attorney’s office and hired an outside firm to investigate.
Ray Delisle, chancellor and communications director for the diocese, told the Globe that the family’s concerns in fall 2021 involved boundaries and poor judgment and did not describe sexual conduct. Delisle said the diocese first learned of sexual conduct in late January 2022, and that disclosure prompted the report to the state.
The Legislature added clergy members to the state’s list of mandated reporters of child abuse through a 2002 law passed as the Boston archdiocese scandal unfolded.
Plea deal and early end to probation
After the outside firm finished its work, the diocese announced in December 2022 that it had found a credible allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against Martineau. The diocese barred him from presenting himself as a priest.
Prosecutors charged Martineau in January 2023 with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older in East Brookfield District Court. He pleaded not guilty.
In September 2025, Martineau accepted a deal in which he admitted to sufficient facts for an assault and battery conviction without pleading guilty. The court dismissed the case and placed him on probation for one year with an order to stay away from the victim. A judge ended the probation early in June.
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported the plea agreement at the time.
Martineau’s lawyer, Louis P. Aloise, told the Globe that prosecutors could prove only that Martineau had hugged the girl. “This is the weakest case I’ve seen,” Aloise said.
Aloise said Martineau has petitioned the diocese for reinstatement. The district attorney’s office declined to comment and cited the impounded case files.
Campbell’s report references the Martineau case in one paragraph without naming him or mentioning the prosecution. The report also identifies the Worcester Diocese as the only diocese in Massachusetts that has not released a public list of clergy credibly accused of abusing children.