Accused priest's court
appearance continued
WORCESTER -- Suspended Catholic priest Robert E. Kelley will return to Worcester Superior Court Oct. 9 after his scheduled pretrial conference Tuesday was continued, according to a spokesman at District Attorney John Conte's office.
Kelley, 60, a convicted rapist, has been indicted on six charges of unnatural rape of a child. The charges were filed on behalf of two alleged victims from his time as an associate pastor at St. Cecilia's Parish on Mechanic Street in Leominster. He is free on $10,000 bail after his second Superior Court arraignment in July.
The former Lunenburg and Gardner priest was not indicted on any further charges by the August sitting of the grand jury, according to DA spokesman Elizabeth A. Stammo.
Kelley, who spent more than five years in state prison after a 1990 conviction involving sexual abuse of a young girl at Sacred Heart Parish in Gardner, has pleaded not guilty to all pending charges.
An associate pastor at St. Cecilia's from 1976 to 1983, Kelley is accused of engaging in several sexual acts with two young girls. Heather Mackey, 26, of Tewksbury, identified herself as a victim after Kelley's initial arraignment in Leominster District Court in May. She said she is the victim in five of the indictments.
Diane Gallien, 31, of Ashburnham, identified herself as the victim in the sixth indictment. She joined Mackey and three other women in a civil law suit against the Worcester Diocese and Kelley's superiors at St. Cecilia's.
Mackey was between 4 and 9 years old when the alleged abuse occurred beginning in 1980, and Gallien was 9 years old in 1980 when her alleged abuse took place, according to court records.
e-mail us at
Worcestervoice@msn.com