Fr. Bede Gorman
“Fr. Bede.” Gorman spent his entire priesthood at Portsmouth Abbey School as a teacher, coach, athletic director, and housemaster of a dorm called “The Barn.” He died in 1985. In 11/2016 the school reached out to alumni regarding past sexual abuse, hiring a law firm to investigate. Four allegations deemed credible surfaced that Gorman abused students from the 1950s until 1972, when the school no longer had boarders. In 1993 a former student had reported abuse by Gorman occurring in the early 1960s. An Abbot Matthew revealed that he had received a complaint from a parent in the early 1970s regarding Fr. Bede’s behavior with her son, which Fr. Bede acknowledged. Gorman was also said to have disciplined students with “bare-bottomed spanking.” Abbott Matthew said he’d heard early in his career that Fr. Bede “did things with boys.” Included in the 3/4/2026 RI Attorney General’s Report.
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