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Abuse victims to protest release of priest who raped boy

FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2005 file photo, defrocked priest Paul Shanley, a figure in the sex scandal that rocked the Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese, stands prior to the reading of a verdict in his trial at Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, Mass. Shanley was convicted of raping and fondling a boy at his Roman Catholic church during the 1980s and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Shanley is due to be released Friday, July 28, 2017. (Mark Garfinkel/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool, File) FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2005 file photo, defrocked priest Paul Shanley, a figure in the sex scandal that rocked the Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese, stands prior to the reading of a verdict in his trial at Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, Mass. Shanley was convicted of raping and fondling a boy at his Roman Catholic church during the 1980s and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Shanley is due to be released Friday, July 28, 2017. (Mark Garfinkel/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool, File)

By Associated Press July 28, 2017 1 min read

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. (AP) – Protesters are vowing to demonstrate outside the Massachusetts prison where a notorious figure in the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal is being released after completing a 12-year sentence for raping a boy in the 1980s.

Paul Shanley is expected to be released from the Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater on Friday.

Shanley was a “street priest” who ministered to alienated youth in the 1960s and ’70s. Decades later, dozens of men came forward and said Shanley had molested or raped them. He was defrocked by the Vatican and convicted of raping a boy at a Newton parish.

Sexual abuse victims say they’re concerned the 86-year-old Shanley will not have enough supervision after he’s released. He’ll be monitored by probation officials, but isn’t required to wear an electronic monitoring device.