Boston Sexual Abuse Lawyer Blog

A former Jesuit priest and teacher at Boston College High School was released from prison in late March after serving time for a 2005 conviction on sexual abuse charges, according to the state correction department.

James Talbot, now 73, left the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater after completing his sentence, according to Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman from the Department of Correction.

Suffolk County prosecutors tried Talbot in 2002 on sexual abuse charges. In 2005, he was sentenced after pleading guilty to raping and sexually assaulting two of his students between 1977 and 1979 and was sentenced to five to seven years.

Prosecutors said Talbot, who coached the school's wrestling team, encouraged male students on the team to wrestle with him in the locker room wearing little or no clothing. He would then molest or rape his victim, charges said.

The Society of Jesus of New England is in the process of removing Talbot from the clergy.

An eastern Kanawha County (West Virginia) man who allegedly used his interest in vampires to meet underage girls has pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual abuse, as reported by the Associated Press.

Bryan Confere, 21, of Diamond pleaded Thursday to a single count of first-degree sexual abuse as the result of a plea agreement.

Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Meadows said the incident actually occurred in 2006 when Confere, who was 17 at the time, assaulted a 10-year-old girl while in the Belle area. He initially was charged as a minor but the case was transferred to adult status in 2007. Confere was indicted on the charge in April 2009.

He was then free on $70,000 bond when he traveled to Boston, Mass. in September 2009 and attempted to take a 12-year-old girl from her South Boston area home. Confere's car broke down a few houses down from the girl's home and he continued on foot, leaving a 16-year-old Pennsylvania girl in the vehicle, TV news station NECN-Boston reported after the incident.

The teen in the vehicle caught the attention of neighbors who let her call 911. Police caught up to Confere before he got to the 12-year-old's home. The news station reported Confere met the 12-year-old girl on GothCityChat.com, an online chat room, in July.

He also had a profile on vampirefreaks.com, which has since been suspended.

Meadows told AP that Confere was placed on pre-trial probation but the case in Massachussetts "fell apart" and he was sent back to West Virginia and booked into South Central Regional Jail on Oct. 25, 2010.

Kanawha Circuit Judge Paul Zakaib sentenced Confere to serve six months to two years at the Anthony Center in Greenbrier County. Upon release he will be under supervision for a period of time.

He will be listed as a registered sex offender for the rest of his life, Meadows told AP.

Pinal County (Arizona) Sheriff Paul Babeu was the victim of sexual assault as a young boy in Massachusetts, an ongoing incident that forever changed the outspoken critic of Arizona's immigration policies, he told MyFoxPhoenix.com.

"I was a victim of sexual assault when I was a young boy, actually by a priest back in Massachusetts," Babeu told the website. "That was something that had a dramatic impact on me and my life."

Babeu said the abuse began at age 11 and continued for several years. He reported the abuse, which altered his views of people in positions of power.

"By somebody who is trusted and revered, someone of God, and then having leaders within the church cover it up and lie about it really awakened my sense of the world and what's right and what's wrong and how some people in positions of great trust and great honor can do bad things," Babeu told Fox.

Babeu, who served as an officer in Iraq with the Arizona Army National Guard prior to becoming Pinal County's top lawman, said the experience shaped his leadership style. Babeu said he tries to use his experience with sexual abuse as a "motivating force" to better the world.

William F. Murphy, 51, of West Roxbury, Mass., has been sentenced to 10 years in prison to be followed by 10 years of supervised release for a child pornography offense, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Carmen M. Ortiz and Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Boston Field Office.

Murphy was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf in the District of Massachusetts.

On Aug. 13, 2010, Murphy pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly accessing child pornography with intent to view. This case arose from an FBI investigation of Murphy's use of online peer-to-peer software to access and view visual depictions of minor females engaging in sexually explicit conduct. These images included depictions of prepubescent girls, and sadistic and masochistic conduct.

A retired Episcopal priest from Marblehead has been removed from the priesthood after a church investigation into allegations that he abused children in separate incidents 20 years apart, as reported by the Salem News.

Franklin E. Huntress Jr., 77, voluntarily resigned rather than face a church trial conducted by officials of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, a diocese official said. Bishop Thomas Shaw officially removed Huntress from the priesthood on Feb. 11.

Church members at St. Michael's in Marblehead and Church of the Holy Name in Swampscott, where Huntress has served in his retirement, were notified of the decision after church services this month.

Huntress declined to comment, referring questions to the diocese.

The investigation into Huntress began after Bishop Shaw's office received a complaint last October from a person who reported being sexually abused as a child by Huntress in 1974. An investigation by Shaw's office into that allegation uncovered the fact that Huntress had been arrested on charges of child sexual abuse in England in 1994.

Huntress has served at 12 churches, including four in England, since becoming a priest in 1962.

In Massachusetts, he served at St. Paul's in Malden from 1962 to '65, St. Martin's in New Bedford from 1985 to '91, All Saints in Dorchester from 1995 to 2002, and Church of the Advent in Boston from 1998 to 2001.

The Salem News reported that he has been "loosely associated" with St. Michael's in Marblehead and Holy Name in Swampscott in his retirement, occasionally serving at the altar but not on staff.