Residents of Florida who have suffered sex abuse as children deserve justice. Unfortunately, a report has revealed that many members of the clergy who have been accused of sex abuse are unsupervised by law enforcement.
Investigation into former priests accused of sexual abuse
An investigation of former priests and other members of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church has revealed the harrowing fact that around 1,700 are not supervised by law enforcement. They have also faced no comeuppance from religious authorities and are now around children on a regular basis in spite of their past.
Many of these priests, monks, deacons and other members of the religious community are middle school teachers. Some are nurses or volunteers who regularly work around children. Then, others actually counsel sexual assault survivors. They also live in close proximity to schools, daycare centers and playgrounds.
Around 76 of these former members of the clergy were not able to be located through the investigation. Very few of them are under some level of supervision.
Repeated sex abuse with no true justice for the victims
In some cases, former priests who committed multiple sexual abuse crimes didn’t face justice until many years later. One former priest was temporarily removed after inappropriate behavior with boys and later arrested on sexual battery charges. However, he only served a five-month prison sentence and went on to serve as a counselor at a boys’ school.
Another was removed from the priesthood after molesting young boys but was able to pass a background check in a different state for a volunteer position. He was later caught sexually abusing a child and admitted to doing the same to a mentally disabled young man.
Very few ex-priests accused of sex abuse are even listed on the sex offender registries. This allows abusers to continue flying under the radar for years.