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August 22, 2004

'Peeping' Mass. priest suspended

From: Boston Herald, MA - Aug 22, 2004

By Tom Mashberg
Sunday, August 22, 2004

The Archdiocese of Boston suspended a Weymouth priest yesterday amid allegations he watched teenage girls undress while serving as a minister to the hearing impaired at the defunct Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph.

The Rev. Charles J. Murphy, 61, head of the apostolate for the deaf at St. Francis Xavier Church in Weymouth and a chaplain at Norfolk State Prison, agreed to the move, said archdiocese spokesman the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne.

Murphy could not be reached for comment, but in May, when the allegations first surfaced in a lawsuit filed by Violet Guertin, 41, of Rockland, his lawyer, George C. McMahon of Quincy, said Murphy ''absolutely denies'' the charges.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents Guertin and other hearing-impaired students who attended the school, said ''this is a positive move in that it will protect other children from abuse.''

The plaintiffs allege that from 1944 to 1977, when they were between 7 and 16 years of age, they were sexually abused by some 40 nuns, priests and others at the school, overseen by the Sisters of St. Joseph from 1899 to 1994.

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