Sexual Abuse

The Boston Globe reported today that Carney Hospital fired the staff of its adolescent psychiatry unit Thursday, after an investigation into an employee’s alleged sexual assault of a patient uncovered serious patient safety problems. Hospital president Bill Walczak told the Globe that he hired former attorney general Scott Harshbarger and his law firm to investigate […]

The Boston Globe reports that a Dorchester man kidnapped a 15-year-old girl from an area street on May 7 and held her captive while forcing her to work as a prostitute in motels in Quincy, Danvers, and Dorchester. The girl escaped last weel when the suspect left her alone at the Best Western Adams Inn […]

The Boston Globe reports that the number of people alleging they were sexually assaulted at Camp Good News in Sandwich climbed as 13 alleged victims have now detailed widespread abuse at the camp, spanning three decades and involving up to four employees. It is unclear whether any of the former campers were sexually assaulted by […]

The New York Daily News reports that disgraced former Christ the King hoops coach Bob Oliva will plead guilty April 4 to sexual abuse, after spending several years trying to fend off sex-abuse allegations by claiming he is the target of a conspiracy to destroy his reputation. Oliva pleaded not guilty to rape of a […]

The Brockton Enterprise reports that school committee members are questioning how the alleged repeated sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl could happen in a city classroom, during school hours and where a teacher may have been present. Stonehill College junior Kevin Treseler, 21, of Millis, faces charges of child rape and indecent assault on a […]

A former Jesuit priest and teacher at Boston College High School was released from prison in late March after serving time for a 2005 conviction on sexual abuse charges, according to the state correction department. James Talbot, now 73, left the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater after completing his sentence, according to Diane Wiffin, a […]

An eastern Kanawha County (West Virginia) man who allegedly used his interest in vampires to meet underage girls has pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual abuse, as reported by the Associated Press. Bryan Confere, 21, of Diamond pleaded Thursday to a single count of first-degree sexual abuse as the result of a plea […]

Pinal County (Arizona) Sheriff Paul Babeu was the victim of sexual assault as a young boy in Massachusetts, an ongoing incident that forever changed the outspoken critic of Arizona’s immigration policies, he told MyFoxPhoenix.com. “I was a victim of sexual assault when I was a young boy, actually by a priest back in Massachusetts,” Babeu […]

A retired Episcopal priest from Marblehead has been removed from the priesthood after a church investigation into allegations that he abused children in separate incidents 20 years apart, as reported by the Salem News. Franklin E. Huntress Jr., 77, voluntarily resigned rather than face a church trial conducted by officials of the Episcopal Diocese of […]

At 71 years old, Mel Levine, a well-known pediatrician facing allegations of sexual impropriety with male minors since the 1960s, was found deceased last week. According to the News-Observer, he left behind a suicide letter. Law Enforcement and Medical Examiner Investigate The local law enforcement in Orange County arrived at Levine’s Rougemont residence following a […]

Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass, has revealed in an interview to air Sunday night, Feb. 20, 2011, on the CBS program “60 Minutes,” that he was sexually abused as a child by a camp counselor, and has detailed physical abuse by a stepfather. The Massachusetts Republican said Wednesday that he hopes the childhood physical and sexual […]

The Berkshire Eagle reports that Gary Mercure, the Catholic priest, could spend the rest of his life in prison for raping two altar boys in the Berkshires. It took less than two hours for a Berkshire Superior Court jury to convict the 62-year-old on three counts of forcible child rape and one count of indecent […]

Kudos to Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, a fellow advocate for victims of child sexual abuse, for releasing more than 100 names of people in the church who have been accused of abuse. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley announced in March 2009 his plans to make these names public. That has not occurred. The Boston Archdiocese’s excuse […]

The Milford Daily News reports that a former priest at the Holy Angels Church in Upton is facing a lawsuit after he allegedly assaulted and abused a boy between 1979 and 1982. The boy, who is now in his late 30s and lives in Worcester County, filed a complaint in Worcester Superior Court last week […]

The highest court in Massachusetts says homeless sex offenders should not be punished for being unable to keep their GPS monitoring devices charged. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday in the case of John Canadyan Jr., a homeless man who was sentenced to 18 months in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of indecent […]

Three former Lowell altar boys, now in their 30s, have accused the late Rev.Czeslaw Szymanski, O.S.P., of Holy Trinity Parish, of molesting them more than 20 years ago, the Lowell Sun reports. The men’s lawyer, Carmen Durso, challenged the archdioceses of Boston and Providence where Szymanski served to release his personnel files “so we can […]

The trial of a former Catholic priest on child sexual abuse charges has been postponed again — the third time the trial has been adjourned since July, according to the Glens Falls Post Star, an upstate NY newspaper. Gary Mercure was to stand trial Nov. 1, but the case has been postponed because of “unavailability […]

A 79-year-old Sandwich man convicted of child rape in 2004 is facing the prospect of civil commitment to a treatment center for sexually dangerous offenders. William Mulcahy was temporarily committed Friday to the Massachusetts Treatment Center at the Bridgewater Correctional Complex at least until a Dec. 10 probable cause hearing. The hearing will determine whether […]

A man who was convicted of raping two women in Somerville four decades ago now faces a potential lifetime commitment under the state’s Sexually Dangerous Person laws, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office and the Somerville Journal. On Friday, a Suffolk Superior Court Judge sent John J. Kelleher, 59, to the Massachusetts Treatment […]

Women who experience physical or sexual abuse as children or adolescents are at significantly increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a large, longitudinal cohort study suggests. Furthermore, investigators found there is a relationship such that the more severe the abuse, the greater the risk. The latest findings from the Nurses Health Study II show […]

Survivors Voice Inc, a non profit foundation founded by Massachusetts clergy abuse survivors Bernie McDaid & Gary Bergeron to help survivors of clergy sexual abuse, have started a global petition and are calling on the United Nations to define the childhood sexual abuse of children as “Crimes against humanity”. Bergeron issued a statement, in which […]