Priest at center of clergy sex abuse scandal to be released

BOSTON (AP) - Prosecutors say one of the most notorious figures in the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal has completed his prison sentence on child rape charges and will be released this week.

Paul Shanley was known in the 1960s and '70s for being a hip street priest who reached out to troubled youths. But in 2005 he was convicted of repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at a suburban parish in the 1980s.

Shanley was sentenced to 12 to 15 years. He argued the accuser's memories of abuse were unreliable.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan says her office hired two psychiatric experts to evaluate the 86-year-old Shanley to see if he could continue to be held after completing his sentence. Both experts told prosecutors he doesn't meet the legal criteria for civil confinement as a sexually dangerous person.

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