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In a first, New Orleans priest accused of abusing minors admits wrongdoing

In a first, New Orleans priest accused of abusing minors admits wrongdoing
An undated photo of Lawrence Hecker. Photograph: Provided photo

In a first, New Orleans priest accused of abusing minors admits wrongdoing

For the first time ever, one of the New Orleans Catholic church’s most strongly suspected abusers has publicly admitted that he sexually abused or harassed several teenagers during his career as a priest. He’s also described himself as remorseful yet unsure if he’s deserving of any criminal consequences.

Lawrence Hecker gave the rare admission when reporters for the Guardian and local news outlet WWL-TV asked him to discuss a statement he gave to New Orleans church leaders in 1999. In the statement, he acknowledged committing “overtly sexual acts” with at least three underage boys in the late 1960s and 1970s and revealed his close relationships with four others stretching into the 1980s.

Hecker in recent years has given various interviews and repeatedly denied touching children inappropriately or avoided saying that he did. But the Guardian obtained a copy of the 24-year-old statement Hecker gave to church leaders, which prompted the questions posed to Hecker in this latest interview.

Asked if he did the specific sexual acts he laid out in the statement, Hecker twice said, “Yes,” while being recorded on video. He also claimed that society was more permissive of such behavior at the time, even though Louisiana’s age of consent to have sex in the 1960s and 70s was the same as it is now: 17.

Hecker claimed he persuaded a prior archbishop of New Orleans in 1988 that he would never “be in any such circumstances” again and subsequently escaped any punishment from either his church or law enforcement authorities.

When asked if he felt that law enforcement should pursue a case against him, he said he “really can’t answer”.

“I just don’t know,” he said, before adding: “Not one chance in a million anything like this would ever happen again. Obviously, I’m truly repentant.”

 

The bizarre exchange with the 91-year-old Hecker offered the latest in a sequence of events that dates back nearly 60 years and was the subject of an extensive Guardian investigation in June.

By his own admission, he sexually abused or harassed seven teenagers between about 1966 and 1979. Reports of his misconduct led to the 1988 conversation with the city’s archbishop at the time, the late Philip Hannan, to whom he promised to never “be in any such circumstances” again.

Still, Hecker continued working. It wasn’t until 1999 that persisting reports against Hecker prompted the archdiocese to send him to an out-of-state psychiatric treatment facility which diagnosed him as a pedophile. The facility recommended that the archdiocese prohibit Hecker from working with minors or other “particularly vulnerable” people, according to a secret personnel file obtained by the Guardian and shared with WWL-TV.

However, even then, Hecker did not stop working. In 2000, he was assigned to a church with an elementary school attached to it. He was allowed to quietly retire in 2002, after a Catholic clerical molestation and cover-up scandal which ensnared the archdiocese of Boston and prompted the worldwide church to adopt reforms and promise transparency.

When asked if he believed it was appropriate for the church to have allowed him to continue his career, Hecker claimed: “We didn’t know then what we know now.” He said the bulk of his acknowledged misconduct unfolded amid “a sexual revolution” where “people were saying, ‘Oh, look, we were bound all these years, all these centuries – now we’re free.’”

His claims aside, at that time it was still illegal for adults in Louisiana to engage in sex with anyone younger than 17.

During a 10-year period beginning in 2010, the archdiocese paid at least $332,500 to reach out-of-court settlements on five complaints alleging sexual abuse by Hecker. Those agreements were among 132 abuse-related settlements totaling $11.6m that the archdiocese paid out over that timeframe, according to documents reviewed by the Guardian.

Yet the New Orleans archdiocese never informed its community that Hecker was strongly suspected of sexually abusing minors until it released a 2018 list of priests and deacons who were considered credibly accused predators. The archdiocese published that roster under public pressure to live up to promises of transparency spurred forth by the ongoing clerical abuse scandal.

Additionally, the archdiocese only stopped paying Hecker’s retirement benefits in 2020. That year, the church filed for federal bankruptcy protection mostly because of litigation relating to the abuse scandal and the judge assigned to the case ordered a halt to payments to credibly accused clergymen.

Though Hecker has never been criminally prosecuted, the New Orleans district attorney’s office has been actively investigating him throughout this summer. While prosecutors have not publicly discussed the investigation, the accuser’s attorney, Richard Trahant, said the victim maintains he was underage when Hecker choked him unconscious and raped him decades ago.

 

In the Guardian and WWL-TV interview, Hecker denied ever choking and raping anyone.

The archdiocese, now led by Archbishop Gregory Aymond, turned over its files on Hecker to prosecutors as part of that investigation in June. It only did so after prosecutors obtained a court order threatening the archdiocese with punishment if it didn’t comply, recently unsealed legal records show.

At least 15 claims for compensation filed as part of the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case allege abuse by Hecker. The bankruptcy remains unresolved.

  • In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

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Written by New Orleans
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Preda Foundation Inc.

The work of Preda Foundation is focused on alleviating the physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse and suffering of children and preventing abuse through community education and social media.

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