Ex-priest's request for new trial assailed

Former priest Paul Shanley, 77, appeared in court yesterday for a hearing on his motion for a new trial. His lawyer argued that the theory of repressed memories was "junk science." (YOON S. BYUN/GLOBE STAFF)

Advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse said yesterday that they were outraged that a priest at the center of the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal is seeking a new trial, based on a challenge to the theory of repressed memories.

Former priest Paul Shanley, 77, is serving a 12-to-15-year sentence for repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at a Newton parish in the 1980s. The victim testified that his repressed memories of the event surfaced in 2002.

Shanley was in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday for a hearing on his motion for a new trial, during which his new lawyer, Robert Shaw Jr., argued that the theory of repressed memories was "junk science."

Shaw said Shanley's trial lawyer failed to vigorously challenge the theory during his trial. "Paul Shanley, just like any other citizen, is entitled to a fair trial," he said.

Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston lawyer who represented more than 100 clergy abuse victims who reached civil settlements with the Boston archdiocese, said he has been flooded with calls about Shanley's motion for a new trial.

"The victims [are] outraged that Father Shanley might have any possibility of having a new trial," Garabedian said. "The victims desperately want closure."

Robert Costello, a Norwood man who said he was sexually abused by another priest during the late 1960s and early 1970s, said he attended the hearing to remind Shanley about the victims of clergy sexual abuse.

"He should not get a new trial," Costello said. "There was more evidence than just the doctors talking about repressed memories. There was [the victim's] testimony."

Shanley's accuser testified that Shanley repeatedly pulled him out of catechism class and raped and fondled him, beginning when he was 6 years old. He said he recovered memories of the abuse in 2002, when the news media began reporting on the clergy abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.

Assistant District Attorney Loretta Lillios said Shanley's defense did call an expert witness during the trial who questioned the reliability of repressed memories and also cross-examined the state's expert on the phenomenon.

Judge Stephen Neel did not immediately rule on the motion.

Shanley became a central figure in the abuse scandal after at least two dozen men asserted that he had molested them.