Keith Townsend, a 52-year-old survivor of childhood sexual abuse, responded to the death of Ronald Paquin, a defrocked Boston Catholic priest who died in custody at age 83 on 11 September. Paquin was imprisoned in 2019 and had been serving time at Mountain View correctional facility in Charleston, Maine. Townsend expressed hope that Paquin’s death would help victims and families “keep pressing forward every single day” and find closure, while acknowledging the lasting trauma survivors carry.
Paquin’s case became central to the clergy sexual abuse scandal involving the Catholic archdiocese of Boston, which led to the resignation of archbishop Bernard Law at the end of 2002 and prompted policy reforms across the U.S. church. In 2002, Paquin pleaded guilty to sexually abusing an altar server between 1989 and 1992 while working at St John the Baptist church in Haverhill, Massachusetts. His crimes were first publicly exposed through Pulitzer-winning investigative reporting by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team, which later became the subject of the Oscar-winning film Spotlight.
After Paquin’s release in 2015, Townsend came forward to report his own abuse by Paquin during camping trips to Kennebunkport, Maine, between 1985 and 1989, when Townsend was between 8 and 13 years old. Townsend reported that the abuse involved drugs and alcohol and subsequently contributed to his struggles with substance abuse and incarceration. A Maine grand jury indicted Paquin in 2017 on charges of gross sexual misconduct. Following a jury trial in November 2018, Paquin was convicted regarding Townsend’s case and sentenced in May 2019 to 16 additional years in prison.
Townsend characterized his motivation for pursuing charges as protecting children rather than seeking personal retribution. He credited Maine authorities with aggressively prosecuting the case after Massachusetts released Paquin. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represented numerous victims of abuse by Paquin and other clergy members and was portrayed in the film Spotlight, noted that the movie provided survivors with reassurance that they were not alone in their experiences. Townsend stated that securing Paquin’s imprisonment for his remaining years ultimately saved lives.
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