Sentenced 5 Years for Repeat Assaults of 2 DSS Wards
By John R. Ellement
Boston Globe [Boston MA]
December 22, 2006
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/12/22/ex_catholic_brother_admits_raping_boys/
A former Catholic brother pleaded guilty yesterday to repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting two boys in the 1970s and '80s and was sentenced to five years and one day in state prison.
Edward Anthony Holmes, who is now 65 and lives in Washington, D.C., declined to comment after leaving Suffolk Superior Court, where he pleaded guilty to a total of 17 charges, including photographing a child for sexual purposes.
His defense lawyer, Jeanmarie Carroll, also declined to comment.
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| Prosecutors said Edward Anthony Holmes, in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday, told the boys in the late 1970s that they must have sex with him or he'd block their foster home placement Photo by Kamerman/Globe Staff |
In a victim impact statement read in court, one victim wrote, "I wish I could forgive you, but right now I can't. I hope you find peace with God."
One victim was repeatedly sexually assaulted between 1976 and 1980, when he was between ages 10 and 14. The second victim was attacked -- and photographed in a sexual act with Holmes -- between 1977 and 1983, when he was between ages 9 and 15.
Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Audrey C. Mark told Superior Court Judge Carol S. Ball that in the 1970s and '80s, Holmes was a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, and was assigned to the now-closed Nazareth Child Care Center in Jamaica Plain.
Mark said children taken from their homes by the Department of Social Services would be sent to the facility, where Holmes was the spiritual counselor. Mark said Holmes told the two boys they must have sex with him or he would prevent them from being sent to foster homes or to live with relatives.
"The defendant molested them. He violated them and he raped them," Mark said. "In terms of child abuse, this is about as bad as it gets."
Mark said Holmes kept the photographs with him until they were discovered by housemates in 1989.
A spokesman for his order told the Globe last year that Holmes had left the order in 2002 for reasons having nothing to do with his crimes.
Holmes will start serving his jail term on Jan. 8.
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