PHILADELPHIA (PA)
AFP
[Trial Narrative and Resources – BishopAccountability.org]
NEW YORK — The highest-ranking US church official to be convicted of covering up child sex allegations, Philadelphia Monsignor William Lynn, was sentenced to between three and six years in prison on Tuesday.
Lynn, whose job it was to investigate reports of abuse in the archdiocese from 1992 to 2004, was found guilty last month of one count of child endangerment.
Defense lawyers had pushed for Lynn to be spared prison, but Judge Teresa Sarmina imposed close to the maximum sentence of between three-and-a-half and seven years.
“It was three to six years,” an official at the court in Philadelphia told AFP by telephone, confirming the tough sentence. …
Shockwaves from the trial are expected to keep reverberating.
“The Lynn trial is of lasting significance because of its guilty verdict, and because the record of the trial contains a dramatic analysis for a single archdiocese of the two crimes that constitute the ongoing sex abuse crisis: a) the sexual abuse of children by priests and b) the enabling and cover-up of the abuse,” wrote bishop-accountability.org, which tracks reported abuses.
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