Ex-Catholic priest convicted after 2002 clergy child sexual abuse scandal dies in prison

Ronald Paquin, a defrocked Catholic priest who was convicted of sexually abusing boys in Massachusetts and Maine following a 2002 scandal, died in prison on Friday, The Boston Globe reported.

Paquin, 83, died while serving a 20-year sentence at Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, Maine, the Globe reported. Officials did not specify a cause of death.

Paquin was sentenced to prison in Maine after he was found guilty of 11 counts of gross sexual misconduct in 2018.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian told the Globe on Monday that he represented more than 25 people who were abused by Paquin when they were children.

His death “brings a measure of relief to many clergy sexual abuse victims and survivors because they feel as though Fr. Paquin will no longer be able to sexually abuse children and destroy innocent lives,” Garabedian said in a statement to the newspaper.

Paquin was one of several priests whose abuse was exposed in the Globe’s Spotlight investigation into child sexual abuse by members of the Archdiocese of Boston in the early 2000s. In 2015, he was portrayed in the move “Spotlight,” which told the story of the Globe’s investigation.

Garabedian said Paquin sexually abused his clients in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, the Globe reported. At the time, the former priest was assigned to St. Monica’s Parish in Methuen and St. John the Baptist Parish in Haverhill.

After being ordained in 1973, Paquin started his tenure as a priest at St. Monica’s, the Globe reported. As part of his position, he was responsible altar boys, Boy Scouts and the Catholic Youth Organization. He was transferred to John the Baptish Parish in 1981.

Paquin addressed his sexual abuse of boys in a 2002 interview with the Globe.

“Sure, I fooled around. But I never raped anyone, and I never felt gratified myself,” he said.

Later that year, Paquin pleaded guilty to three counts of child rape in Massachusetts. He was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in state prison. Following his release in 2015, he faced charges in Maine for molesting boys during trips to Kennebunkport in 1985 and 1988.