Ex-priest Shanley sentenced to 12-15 years for child rape

February 21, 2005 Former Roman Catholic priest Paul Shanley was sentenced to 12-15 years in prison on Tuesday, February 15, 2005. The sentencing occurred at Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Shanley was recently convicted of multiple counts of child rape and indecent assault and battery against a child.

Shanley's conviction is part of the aftermath of what the Boston Globe called a series of "brutally damaging revelations about scores of priests who over a period of decades had kept their jobs despite raping, molesting, and groping children and adolescents." The revelations culminated in the resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law, leader of the Archdiocese of Boston on December 13, 2002.