Keith Townsend, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by Ronald Paquin, a defrocked Boston Catholic priest, expressed hope that Paquin’s death in custody on 11 September will help victims and their families gain closure. Paquin, who was 83 at the time of his death, had been imprisoned following criminal charges that Townsend successfully pursued against him. The case was part of the broader clergy sexual abuse and cover-up scandal involving the Catholic archdiocese of Boston that led to the resignation of Archbishop Bernard Law at the end of 2002 and prompted policy reforms across the U.S. church.
Paquin had pleaded guilty in 2002 to sexually abusing an altar server between 1989 and 1992 while serving at St John the Baptist church in Haverhill, Massachusetts. His actions were first publicly exposed through a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative series by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team. After being released from prison in 2015, Townsend came forward with his own account of abuse, reporting that Paquin had molested him on camping trips to Maine between 1985 and 1989 when he was between eight and thirteen years old. Townsend indicated the abuse involved alcohol and drugs and contributed to his later 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 found guilty regarding Townsend’s allegations, though acquitted on charges related to another individual. Judge Wayne Douglas sentenced Paquin in May 2019 to an additional 16 years in prison at Mountain View correctional facility in Charleston, Maine.
Townsend reflected that while he understood various reactions to news of Paquin’s death, he chose to focus on his own recovery from addiction and the family he built afterward. He emphasized that pursuing Paquin’s re-imprisonment was motivated by protecting children and noted that Maine’s prosecution of the case proved effective. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represented multiple victims of abuse by Paquin and other clergy members, noted that the film Spotlight helped survivors understand they were not alone in their experiences.
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