Former Maine priest pleads guilty to sexual assault of boy

A defrocked priest, who once taught at a Catholic high school in Portland, pleaded guilty Monday to sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy at a Freeport church in the late 1990s.

James F. Talbot, who already spent time behind bars for molesting boys in Massachusetts, will serve three years in a Maine prison as part of his sentence for sexually assaulting and having unlawful sexual contact with a minor under the age of 14. He is 80 years old.

Although the former Jesuit priest has an history of sexual abuses dating back to the 1970s and has settled lawsuits with more than a dozen victims, the Monday plea was only his second criminal conviction. In some cases, he was not prosecuted because the statute of limitations had passed.

“Justice has been served,” Bishop Robert Deeley of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland said in a statement.

http://bangordailynews.com/2018/09/24/news/portland/former-maine-priest-pleads-guilty-to-sex-assault-of-boy-confronted-by-victim-in-court/