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Retired priest indicted on 16 child rape counts

Shanley was arrested last month.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A grand jury Thursday indicted retired priest Paul Shanley on 16 new charges -- including 10 counts of rape of a child, prosecutors said.

All of the children were under the age of 11 when prosecutors said the abuse began, and two were 6 years old, according to documents. The boys Shanley is accused of abusing are now in their 20s and 30s, prosecutors said.

"The allegations involve situations where the young men are attending a weekly class. Father Shanley is the pastor at the time. He asked for one or more of the students to come to assist him and talk about an instance -- and that's when the victims allege the abuse would occur," Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said.

The indictment covers a 10-year span from 1979 to 1989, when Shanley was a priest at St. John the Evangelist Parish in the Boston suburb of Newton. The panel also indicted Shanley on six counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14 in addition to the 10 counts of rape of a child.

Shanley, 71, was arrested last month on three counts of child rape, which were included in Thursday's indictment and to which he has pleaded not guilty.

He is to be arraigned next week on the charges, Coakley said, although a firm date has not been set. Coakley said the investigation was still open.

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Rodney Ford, a father of one of the boys Shanley is accused of abusing, expressed relief that the retired priest would soon see his day in court.

"To all of Paul Shanley's victims and their families, hopefully he will never abuse another child again. And to the deceased victims of Paul Shanley, rest in peace tonight," Ford told reporters.

Roderick MacLeish, the attorney representing the four alleged victims who are now in their 20s and 30s, said another of his clients was not included in Thursday's indictment because the statute of limitations had run out.

That man has filed a civil claim that accuses Shanley of raping him in 1980. MacLeish said there would be "many, many more prosecutions" if it weren't for the statute of limitations.

"We hope the legislature will be acting on that soon," MacLeish said.

Shanley was the subject of numerous molestation allegations throughout his career in the Boston area. He moved to California in 1990.

The archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, has come under sharp criticism for his handling of the case involving Shanley, who was moved from parish to parish as allegations that he molested children multiplied.

The allegations have forced the Boston archdiocese to release numerous documents about how they handled Shanley's case: Among them was a 1994 memo from another priest who said that a psychologist who had evaluated Shanley called the priest "damaged ... beyond repair."

The memo, written by John McCormack -- now the bishop of Manchester, New Hampshire -- asks, "How do we protect others from him?"

Boston church officials never told their California counterparts about Shanley's background and said he was a priest in good standing, according to documents. Later, Law recommended Shanley for a post as director of a New York City guest house run by the Catholic Church.