BOSTON (MA)
WMTW-TV, ABC-8 [Portland ME]
September 14, 2026
By Richard Maj and Adam Bartow
Ronald Paquin was serving a 16-year sentence for sexually abusing an altar boy.
CHARLESTON, Maine —
Ronald Paquin died Friday afternoon at the Mountain View Correctional Facility, according to a statement from the Maine Department of Corrections. He was 83 years old.
Paquin was a defrocked priest from Massachusetts, serving a 16-year sentence for sexually abusing an altar boy during trips to Maine in the 1980s. He had previously served more than 10 years in a Massachusetts prison for sexually abusing an altar boy there. He was released in 2015 and then taken into custody in Maine.
On Monday, an attorney representing those who were abused by Paquin released a statement.
“Fr. Paquin sexually abused my clients as children from about 1973 to 1990 when he was assigned to either St. Monica’s Parish in Methuen, MA, or St. John The Baptist Parish in Haverhill, MA,” said Mitchell Garabedian. “The death of Fr. Paquin brings a measure of relief to many clergy sexual abuse victims and survivors because they feel as though Fr. Paquin will no longer be able to sexually abuse children and destroy innocent lives. With all due respect, society has not lost a great human being.”
Paquin started serving his sentence in Maine in 2019.
“He would play up to the families, he knew the vulnerable families. He would take the children on trips but he was a pure rapist— and my clients are relieved — the survivors and victims are relieved that he’s passed away because children are safer. There was no limit to his sexual abuse of children— it was awful, it was evil it was disgusting. It was garbage,” Garabedian said.