By: (AP) A judge today barred the media from using photos or televised images of an alleged victim of Paul Shanley during the defrocked priest's upcoming child-rape trial.
Superior Court Judge Stephen Neel granted a request by prosecutors, who argued that using the man's photo or image would place additional stress on the man, who is the only one of four alleged Shanley victims remaining in the case. Neel's order also extends to the man's wife and father.
The man, who is now in his 20s, says Shanley raped him at St. Jean's parish in Newton while he was a young boy in the 1980s. He said he did not recall the abuse until three years ago, when the clergy sex-abuse scandal first erupted in Boston.
"It will be extremely difficult to ask him to testify to those details with a camera right there," Assistant District Attorney Lynn Rooney said during a hearing on the request yesterday.
Two other men who accused Shanley of raping them as children were dropped from the case, and prosecutors have said they expect to drop a third accuser.
"He is the only one left," Rooney said. "It is really too big a burden to place on one young man."
Lawyers for the media argued that the man's photograph has already been published. The man gave numerous press interviews in 2002, and his photograph was published in newspapers and on television.
Last week, Neel overturned an order from another judge that barred the media from identifying Shanley's accusers. Several news organizations, including The Associated Press, had challenged the order, and Neel agreed that it was unconstitutional.
The AP has a policy of not identifying rape victims without their consent.
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