Former New Mexico priest gets 30 years for child sexual abuse

By Keith Coffman

 

FILE PHOTO: Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, holds a sign during the protest outside the venue of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) general assembly in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., November 12, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

 

(Reuters) - A former Roman Catholic priest who fled to Morocco before he was returned to the United States and convicted of sexually abusing an altar boy in New Mexico in the 1990s was sentenced on Friday to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.

 

U.S District Judge Martha Vazquez imposed the sentence in Albuquerque federal court on Arthur Perrault, 81, a onetime Air Force chaplain and colonel, U.S. Attorney John Anderson said in a statement.

 

"There are few acts more horrific than the long-term sexual abuse of a child,” Anderson said. “At long last, today's sentence holds Perrault accountable for his deplorable conduct.”

 

Perrault’s trial attorney, Samuel Winder, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Perrault was convicted by a federal jury in April on six counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact with a minor in 1991 and 1992 at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque and at the Santa Fe National Cemetery, prosecutors said.

 

  The victim, now an adult, testified that Perrault befriended him when he was 9 years old, showering him with gifts and trips before sexually assaulting him, prosecutors said.

 

Although he was convicted of abusing just one victim, prosecutors alleged in court filings that Perrault was a serial child molester who abused numerous young people over more than 30 years as a priest in New Mexico and Rhode Island.

 

At his trial, seven other alleged victims testified that Perrault, ordained in 1964, abused them during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

 

The Roman Catholic Church has been roiled by allegations of sexual abuse since 1992, when the Boston Globe newspaper revealed a decades-long cover-up by church hierarchy of sexual misconduct by its clergy.

 

The U.S. Catholic Church has paid out more than $3 billion to settle clergy abuse cases, according to BishopAccountability.org, which tracks the issue.

 

Under federal law, a convicted defendant must serve at least 85% of a sentence, meaning Perrault will likely die in prison.

 

Perrault fled the United States in 1992 when his criminal conduct became public, prosecutors said. He was located in Morocco, where he was arrested in 2017 following his indictment on the sex charges, and was extradited to New Mexico.

 

Linda Card, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, said Perrault served in the Air Force Reserve Chaplain Corps, and for a time was on active-duty status.

 

(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Steve Gorman and Tom Brown)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-09-14

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I was stationed at Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico, but I stopped going to church a long time ago.

Charged and convicted with one brave victim, how many ruined lives is this creep responsible for.

Grooming a nine year old, I hope that other victims can now feel free to come forward to have their cases heard, and him held responsible before the courts.

 

4 hours ago, RJRS1301 said:

Charged and convicted with one brave victim, how many ruined lives is this creep responsible for.

Grooming a nine year old, I hope that other victims can now feel free to come forward to have their cases heard, and him held responsible before the courts.

 

For other  victims  perhaps  they can find vindication of their own in this conviction without the  trauma endured  again by the  victim in achieving it?

"ruined lives" not  often leave confidence to  victims.

Troll post removed.  

 

Always nice to hear about another one of these pieces of human garbage paying for their heinous behaviour. I suspect if they can get a few hundred thousand more of these perverted Catholic priests incarcerated, the world will be a MUCH safer place for children. 

Another prime example why Religion is toxic and should be avoided at all costs .

The big guy in the sky with a beard has a lot to answer to 

47 minutes ago, Macthehat said:

Another prime example why Religion is toxic and should be avoided at all costs .

The big guy in the sky with a beard has a lot to answer to 

 

A prime example of how religion has been and is being corrupted by evil, perverted, corrupt, twisted humans. 

 

Look at the origins of the Catholic Church in Rome; how and why it was formed in the way it was; and it's actions over centuries to protect, enrich itself and increase it's power. 

 

More of a mafia than a church.

3 hours ago, Macthehat said:

Another prime example why Religion is toxic and should be avoided at all costs .

The big guy in the sky with a beard has a lot to answer to 

Couldn't agree more...IF "it" really existed, but that's another 5 month old thread and running! 

21 hours ago, Macthehat said:

Another prime example why Religion is toxic and should be avoided at all costs .

The big guy in the sky with a beard has a lot to answer to 

I would say Religious Institutions, as opposed to simply religion.