Former New Orleans priest, 93, is sentenced to life in prison for raping boy decades ago

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Hecker's sentence comes as the Archdiocese of New Orleans deals with fallout from a wave of sexual abuse lawsuits and allegations that church leaders had long ignored predatory priests, leading to a long-running bankruptcy proceeding. The survivor of the assault to which Hecker pleaded guilty said that Hecker had offered to instruct him in wrestling moves ahead of tryouts in the mid-1970s for a school team and that he recalled the training “started innocently enough," The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported. Another survivor, Aaron Hebert, has said Hecker abused him in the late 1960s when he was an eighth grader at a Catholic elementary school outside New Orleans. New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who has rebuffed calls from survivors of clergy sexual assaults to step down, said in an emailed statement that he hoped survivors of Hecker's abuse would find “some closure and some sense of peace in his sentencing.” “On behalf of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, we offer our sincere and heartfelt apologies to the survivors for the pain Hecker has caused them to endure for decades," Aymond said.