Louisiana grand jury charges 91-year-old disgraced priest with sexual assault of teenage boy in 1975
Associated PressNEW ORLEANS — A state grand jury has charged a now-91-year-old disgraced priest with sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 1975, an extraordinary prosecution that could shed new light on what Roman Catholic Church leaders knew about a child sex abuse crisis that persisted for decades and claimed hundreds of victims. It wasn’t until 2018 that the Archdiocese of New Orleans publicly identified Hecker as a suspected predator when it released its list of “credibly accused” priests. “We’ve had to fight very vigorously in the courts and behind the scenes.” The alleged victim’s attorneys called the indictment a “victory for all victim-survivors of clergy sexual abuse.” “Lawrence Hecker got away with grotesque sexual felonies against children for many decades under the protection of the Archdiocese of New Orleans,” attorneys Richard Trahant, Soren Gisleson and John Denenea said in a joint statement. “Even after Father Hecker made monumental admissions in 1988 and again in 1999, the archdiocese failed to report him to any authorities,” attorneys for Hecker’s alleged victims wrote in a court filing.
History of this topic
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Associated PressFormer New Orleans priest, 93, is sentenced to life in prison for raping boy decades ago
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Louisiana grand jury charges 91-year-old disgraced priest with sexual assault of teenage boy in 1975
The Independent
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