Unnamed boy - 10 yo - (1999) / Convicted: Priest, Charles Englehardt and teacher, Bernard Shero - Philadelphia, PA

by twinkletoes Thu Jan 31, 2013 11:45 pm

Jury convicts priest and sixth-grade Catholic school teacher for 'sexually assaulting and raping a 10-year-old boy'

Rev. Charles Englehardt was convicted of indecent assault of a child under 13, corruption of a minor and conspiracy
Teacher Bernard Shero was convicted of rape and indecent sexual assault
The
accuser, who is now 24 years old, claimed he was assaulted by
Englehardt for five hours after Mass and that Shero raped him in a car

By Associated Press Reporter

PUBLISHED: 18:39 EST, 30 January 2013 | UPDATED: 18:41 EST, 30 January 2013

A jury on Wednesday convicted a priest and teacher in a pivotal
church-abuse case that rocked the Philadelphia archdiocese and sent a
church official to prison for child endangerment.

The verdict supports accounts by a 24-year-old policeman's son that he was
sexually abused by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and sixth-grade teacher
Bernard Shero in about 1999, when he was 10 years old.

The accuser's 2009 complaint describing abuse by two priests and the
teacher led to Monsignor William Lynn's landmark conviction last year
for endangerment. Lynn is serving three to six years in prison for his
role transferring an admitted pedophile priest to the accuser's parish
in northeast Philadelphia.

Unnamed boy - 10 yo - (1999) / Convicted: Priest, Charles Englehardt and teacher, Bernard Shero - Philadelphia, PA Article-0-174209A9000005DC-610_634x414

Unnamed boy - 10 yo - (1999) / Convicted: Priest, Charles Englehardt and teacher, Bernard Shero - Philadelphia, PA Article-0-174209A9000005DC-610_634x414

Former teacher Bernard Shero walks from the Criminal Justice Center in
Philadelphia. A jury on Wednesday convicted Shero of rape, indecent
sexual assault and other charges

The young man said the abuse started after Engelhardt caught him drinking
altar wine in fifth grade. He said Engelhardt told fellow priest Edward
Avery about their 'session,' prompting Avery to twice sexually assault
the boy. And he said Shero raped him in a car a year later, after
driving him home after detention.

The jury convicted Shero of rape, indecent sexual assault and other
charges, and Engelhardt of indecent assault of a child under 13,
corruption of a minor and conspiracy with Avery. The jury deadlocked on
one count, an indecent sexual assault count against Engelhardt.

Defense lawyers argued that details of his story defied belief, and said the
troubled young man was simply looking for a payout from his pending
civil suit against the archdiocese.

'OK, so he sued the archdiocese,' Assistant District Attorney Mark
Cipolletti argued to jurors Friday. 'Who can blame him? ... No dollar
amount could fix this, and never could.'

Defense lawyers attacked the credibility of the accuser, who has battled a
heroin addiction since his teens, and gave varying accounts of where and
how the alleged abuse occurred.

Unnamed boy - 10 yo - (1999) / Convicted: Priest, Charles Englehardt and teacher, Bernard Shero - Philadelphia, PA Article-0-17025ECD000005DC-248_306x456

Unnamed boy - 10 yo - (1999) / Convicted: Priest, Charles Englehardt and teacher, Bernard Shero - Philadelphia, PA Article-0-17025ECD000005DC-248_306x456

Unnamed boy - 10 yo - (1999) / Convicted: Priest, Charles Englehardt and teacher, Bernard Shero - Philadelphia, PA Article-0-17025EC1000005DC-601_306x456

The alleged victim said the abuse started after Rev. Engelhardt (left)
caught him drinking altar wine. He said Engelhardt told fellow priest
Edward Avery (right) about their 'session,' prompting Avery to assault
him twice

He told the social worker he'd been raped for five hours by Engelhardt
after Mass; beaten and tied with sashes by defrocked priest Edward
Avery; and raped by Shero at school.

'(He) is the walking, talking personification of reasonable doubt,' argued
defense lawyer Michael McGovern, who represents Engelhardt, a
66-year-old Oblate of St. Francis.

The accuser's account got a boost when Avery entered a surprise guilty plea
last year. But Avery startled the courtroom this month when he
testified that he never touched the accuser, saying he took the plea to
avoid a longer sentence at trial.

Unnamed boy - 10 yo - (1999) / Convicted: Priest, Charles Englehardt and teacher, Bernard Shero - Philadelphia, PA Article-0-17025EC9000005DC-3_306x454

Unnamed boy - 10 yo - (1999) / Convicted: Priest, Charles Englehardt and teacher, Bernard Shero - Philadelphia, PA Article-0-17025EC9000005DC-3_306x454

The young man said Shero raped him in a car for five hours after driving him home after detention

A lawyer for Shero, 49, described his visually impaired client as an easy
target who had been taunted by classmates growing up and by students as
an adult. That portrait led Cipolletti to wonder aloud why he went into
teaching.

Reminding jurors of the big picture, McGovern urged jurors to resist the
'groundswell presumption of guilt throughout this country' when priests
are accused of molesting children.

Thousands of people have accused priests around the country of abuse, but the
complaints were routinely locked in secret archives. Several states,
including Pennsylvania, then extended the time limit for child sex-abuse
victims to pursue criminal or civil action, although victim advocates
want to see additional reforms.

Philadelphia prosecutors saw their chance to renew their exhaustive, but stalled,
investigation into priest abuse with the policeman's son, whose claims
were viable under the new statutes.

District Attorney Seth Williams decided to charge Monsignor William Lynn, the
former secretary for clergy at the archdiocese, with child endangerment
because Avery had been transferred to the boy's parish even though he
admitted to church officials that he had abused a boy previously.

Lynn was convicted in the landmark case in June, and is serving three to six years in prison. He is appealing his conviction.

In September, Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn was convicted of a
misdemeanor for failing to report a priest known to possess child
pornography.

The victims' advocacy group Bishopaccountability.org recently began posting
the secret church documents aired at the Lynn trial. And the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles was forced to make many of their secret
archives public.

'The Philadelphia archive will show why statutes of limitations must be
reformed in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and why Lynn and Finn will not
be the last church officials to be held accountable,'
Bishopaccountability officials said.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270987/Jury-convicts-priest-sixth-grade-Catholic-school-teacher-sexually-assaulting-raping-10-year-old-boy.html#ixzz2JYujD8zQ