Former Rhode Island priest charged with sex abuse – Boston News, Weather, Sports

PROVIDENCE, RI (AP) — A former Roman Catholic priest who ministered in several Rhode Island congregations has been charged with sexually assaulting a youth about 40 years ago, the attorney general’s office said Monday.

Kevin Fisette, 66, is due to be charged with first-degree sexual assault on Wednesday, authorities said.

The alleged assault on a boy occurred between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 1982 in Burrillville, when Fisette was serving as a deacon at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Hopkinton and as a chaplain at Rhode Island Hospital, officials said.

Fisette, who currently resides in Killingly, Connecticut, was ordained in November 1981. He is already on the list of ministers from the Diocese of Providence credibly accused of abuse and was removed from ministry in 2009 according to that list.

Messages were left with Fisette’s attorney and the Diocese of Providence for comment.

Attorney General Peter Neronha opened a review of allegations of sexual abuse in the diocese shortly thereafter in 2019 Diocese published a list of 50 clergymenReligious priests and deacons credibly accused of child sex abuse in 1950.

The diocese voluntarily agreed to give the Rhode Island Attorney General and State Police access to all complaints since 1950, whether or not the diocese deemed them credible.

Rhode Island is one of the most Catholic US states.

Fisette is the fourth former priest to be charged under the latest review.

“Our broad investigation into child sexual abuse by clergy in Rhode Island has had two primary purposes from the start: to produce a comprehensive report of our findings regarding that abuse and the diocesan response to it, and to conduct individual criminal cases along the way as they are being developed where the alleged facts justify it,” Neronha said in a statement.

The investigation is ongoing, he said.

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