ALFRED (NEWS CENTER Maine) — The former catholic priest, Ronald Paquin has been found guilty of 11 out of 24 counts including sexually abusing young boys while on trips in Maine during the 80s.
Paquin is the former Massachusetts priest who had already been convicted of sexually abusing a Haverhill altar boy more than three decades ago.
“The [jurors] did the right thing. Thank you to the state of Maine.” Keith Townsend, one of the victims who testified in the Ronald Paquin trial, wiped away tears as the jury read the guilty verdict.
He calls Paquin, “pure evil.”
Two men testified they were altar boys when Paquin befriended them and invited them on trips, including visits to Kennebunkport, Maine. Both said he repeatedly assaulted them. One of them said he was drugged.
Paquin chose not to testify during his trial at York County Superior Court in Alfred.
Jurors began deliberations late Wednesday afternoon and handed down the verdict Thursday morning.
Paquin, who's 76, pleaded not guilty to 24 counts related to the assault of two boys between 1985 and 1988.
Paquin spent more than a decade in a Massachusetts prison for sexually assaulting an altar boy in that state. He was released in 2015, and was taken into custody in Maine last year.
"He would tell dirty jokes. He would tell me I wanted something more from him," the alleged victim remembered, his hands and voice shaking throughout his testimony.
Jurors who were selected last week were asked a series of questions including whether they watched the movie "Spotlight" about the Boston Globe's reporting on the clergy abuse scandal.
Paquin, who was featured in the movie, was a central figure in the scandal that enveloped the Boston archdiocese. He spent more than a decade in a Massachusetts prison for sexually assaulting an altar boy.
He was released in 2015 and was taken into custody in Maine last year.
The Boston Globe reported Paquin admitted to medical evaluators that he abused at least 14 boys and said he was also abused as a child.
Other allegations against him have prompted civil settlements, but no other criminal convictions. In Maine, charges were made possible because the statute of limitations for sex crimes against a child younger than 16 was eliminated in 1999.
