A lawyer for a former altar boy says the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington disregarded the welfare of children when it hired a priest with a history of child molestation allegations.
Plaintiff’s lawyer Jerome O’Neill made the comments Tuesday as a civil trial opened in the case of a 44-year-old man who says Father Edward Paquette molested him when he was an 11-year-old altar boy at Christ the King Church in Burlington.
O’Neill says the diocese knew Paquette had a history of molesting boys when it hired him.
Diocese lawyer Tom McCormick didn’t dispute the abuse allegations during his opening statement to jurors, but he said the bishop who hired Paquette in 1972 did so after being advised to put him in a parish setting.