First clergy paedophile cover-up trial set to start

The landmark trial of a Catholic Church official accused of covering up paedophile abuses in the US is set to start in Philadelphia.

Monsignor William Lynn, who oversaw the assignment of priests to schools and parishes across the Philadelphia region, faces accusations that he failed to keep priests accused of sexual abuse away from minors.

The role of such a senior official, whose co-defendant Reverend James Brennan is accused of sexually abusing boys in the 1990’s, makes the trial the first of its kind in the US.

In a surprise pre-trial twist on Thursday, another co-defendant, defrocked priest Edward Avery, pleaded guilty to his own sex crimes, thereby avoiding trial. He was immediately sentenced to between two-and-a-half and five years in prison.

The accusations against the three men read like many other church sex abuse cover-ups, in which priests accused of wrongdoing were shuffled from one parish to another.