A prosecutor’s motion to keep in prison an ex-priest convicted of child sexual abuse highlights how civil rather than Church authority continues to try to hold perpetrators accountable.

Prosecutors move to have ex-priest declared ‘sexually dangerous’

A former Catholic priest who was at the center of the sexual abuse crisis in the Boston Archdiocese could remain in custody even though he has completed his prison sentence, as Essex prosecutors push for him to be declared a dangerous sexual predator.

“Ronald H. Paquin pleaded guilty in 2002 and received a 12-to-15-year sentence for repeatedly raping a Haverhill altar boy between 1989 and 1992. He completed the sentence for three counts of rape of a child in late May, officials said, but remains in confinement until his status is resolved.

“Facing the possibility that Paquin would be released, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office is moving to have the 72-year-old Paquin declared a ‘sexually dangerous person.’ Blodgett filed a petition to keep Paquin locked up in the spring, before his sentence actually ended, the district attorney’s office said.”

By John R. Ellement, The Boston Globe — Click here to read the rest of this story.