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  Searching for Victims of Abuse

ABC 30 [California]
July 13, 2005

A North Valley church used it's newsletter to find victims of abuse by a priest already in prison.

The Merced County Sheriff's Department is asking for help in identifying local cases of abuse by Father Thomas Purcell.

Father Purcell worked at a Planada Church during the mid 1990's.

The investigation was sparked by a call from a man who says he was molested during a sleep-over at Sacred Hearth Catholic Church.

The Sheriff's Department says an investigation found a number of victims, all under the age of fourteen.

Purcell is currently serving a twelve year sentence in an Arizona prison for molesting a young boy in the mid 1980's.