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http://www.boston.com/news/local/connectic..._priest_porter/
Victims testify they were molested by former priest Porter
By Martin Finucane, Associated Press Writer, 4/12/2004
TAUNTON, Mass., -- A former altar boy said Monday that defrocked priest James Porter raped him in a church dressing room in the early 1960s, and later molested him in his hospital bed while he was recovering from pneumonia.
Thomas Kulas, now 52, of Torrington, Conn., testified during a court hearing on prosecutors' bid to keep t
e convicted pedophile locked up as a sexually dangerous person. He said Porter would follow the altar boys into a basement dressing room after Mass at St. James Catholic church in New Bedford.
It was
th
re that Kulas said he was raped by Porter. He was about
12 at the time.
After that, "I was deathly afraid of him. He struck the fear of God in me," he said. "I would run downstairs as soon as Mass was over and I'd hide. Your heart's pounding, praying that the door you were hiding in wasn't going to open."
Kulas said Porter molested him several other times, including once in his hospital bed, where the former priest fondled him. He said he turned to alcohol and drugs to escape the memories and was an addict by 16.
"I went straight to the darkness," he said. "You don't know what it's like to drag this baggage around with you. If I can spare one kid this baggage ... I don't know what my life would have been like had this not
occurred."
Kulas was one of four Porter victims who testified Monday morning, on day six of the hearing began in Taunton Superior Court.
Daniel Kiley, 52, of Newton, said he
was
mole
sted by Por
ter in the early 1960s at a parish in North Attleboro.
Porter's attorney, Michael Farrington, dismissed their tes
timony as outdated and irrelevant.
"No matter how you want to look at it, it was 40 years ago," Farrington said outside court.
Porter, 69, was a priest in the Fall River Diocese who was convicted in 1993 of molesting 28 children. He completed his prison term in January, but prosecutors petitioned to have him committed indefinitely to the Massachusetts Treatment Center for sexual offenders in Bridgewater.
If Judge David McLaughlin decides there is enough evidence, a trial will be held on the state's request to keep Porter locked up.
â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š© Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connectic..._priest_porter/
Victims testify they were molested by former priest Porter
By Martin Finucane, Associated Press Writer, 4/12/2004
TAUNTON, Mass., -- A former altar boy said Monday that defrocked priest James Porter raped him in a church dressing room in the early 1960s, and later molested him in his hospital bed while he was recovering from pneumonia.
Thomas Kulas, now 52, of Torrington, Conn., testified during a court hearing on prosecutors' bid to keep t
e convicted pedophile locked up as a sexually dangerous person. He said Porter would follow the altar boys into a basement dressing room after Mass at St. James Catholic church in New Bedford.
It was
th
re that Kulas said he was raped by Porter. He was about
12 at the time.
After that, "I was deathly afraid of him. He struck the fear of God in me," he said. "I would run downstairs as soon as Mass was over and I'd hide. Your heart's pounding, praying that the door you were hiding in wasn't going to open."
Kulas said Porter molested him several other times, including once in his hospital bed, where the former priest fondled him. He said he turned to alcohol and drugs to escape the memories and was an addict by 16.
"I went straight to the darkness," he said. "You don't know what it's like to drag this baggage around with you. If I can spare one kid this baggage ... I don't know what my life would have been like had this not
occurred."
Kulas was one of four Porter victims who testified Monday morning, on day six of the hearing began in Taunton Superior Court.
Daniel Kiley, 52, of Newton, said he
was
mole
sted by Por
ter in the early 1960s at a parish in North Attleboro.
Porter's attorney, Michael Farrington, dismissed their tes
timony as outdated and irrelevant.
"No matter how you want to look at it, it was 40 years ago," Farrington said outside court.
Porter, 69, was a priest in the Fall River Diocese who was convicted in 1993 of molesting 28 children. He completed his prison term in January, but prosecutors petitioned to have him committed indefinitely to the Massachusetts Treatment Center for sexual offenders in Bridgewater.
If Judge David McLaughlin decides there is enough evidence, a trial will be held on the state's request to keep Porter locked up.
â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š© Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or redistributed.
