CHARLESTON (ME)
WHAV [Haverhill, MA]
September 14, 2026
By WHAV News Staff
A lawyer, who represented more than 25 sexual abuse victims or survivors of Ronald H. Paquin, said Monday the death of the 83-year-old former priest while in prison will bring “relief.”
Paquin, who was once assigned to St. John The Baptist Parish in Haverhill and St. Monica’s Parish in Methuen, died during the afternoon last Friday, Sept. 11, at Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, Maine. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said “Paquin sexually abused my clients as children from about 1973 to 1990.”
“The death of Father Paquin brings a measure of relief to many clergy sexual abuse victims and survivors because they feel as though Father 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,” Garabedian said in a statement emailed to WHAV.
As WHAV reported at the time, Paquin began serving a 20-year prison sentence in 2019 for gross sexual misconduct. All but 16 years of his sentence was suspended and was to be followed by three years of probation.
Highlighted in the movie “Spotlight,” Paquin was the first priest to admit guilt in a molestation case during the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal.