Catholic diocese to pay $2M to molested boy forced to confess to abuser priest
A Catholic diocese will pay $2 million to a victim who was molested by a priest then forced to confess after the assaults.
A victim of a ‘predator priest’ will receive $2 million dollars after he was repeatedly molested, then forced to confess to his abuser.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie, Pennsylvania agreed on Tuesday to make the payment to the victim, believed to be former alter boy, who was abused more than 20 times in various rectories by ex-priest and convicted pedophile David Poulson, 65.
Poulson pleaded guilty in January to sexually abusing two boys and making one of them say confession after the assaults, which spanned from 2002 to 2010 in churches in Fryburg and Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania.
The victim’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, said the diocese chose to settle the claim before his client, only referred to as ‘John Doe,’ filed a lawsuit.
Poulson was one of only two priests charged as the result of a grand jury report that detailed allegations against 300 ‘predator priests’ accused of abusing more than 1,0000 victims across the state. So few priests were charged because nearly all of their alleged crimes occurred decades ago, past the statute of limitations for sexual abuse, according to NBC.
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Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Poulson’s victims were eight and 15 years old when he molested them.
‘Poulson assaulted one of his victims more than 20 times in church rectories. He made that victim go to confession and confess the abuse – to Poulson. He used the tools of the priesthood to further his abuse,’ Shapiro said.
The boys were also molested at a remote hunting cabin that Poulson owned with a friend, Shapiro said. The priest would often watch horror movies with his victims on his laptop before assaulting them.
When Poulson was convicted, the prosecutor read a letter from one of his victims that said: ‘David Poulson affected my life in more ways than I can count. It has cost me my career and my marriage, and my daughter. Because of this man’s actions, I have suffered for years from mental anguish. I ask that true justice be served on this day.’
Poulson has been defrocked by the church and was sentenced to a maximum of 14 years in prison in January after he took a plea deal and admitted to the sexual assault of one boy and the attempted sexual assault of another.