It’s very difficult to begin with to even bring up an accusation to the court...as follows....
The child molester is going to deny ever doing anything wrong, often they will offer proof of their innocence by offering names of other children they have been around or character witnesses who they know would never believe such a thing. The next legal move is to get everything from the victim interview, exam and the accused interview to the prosecutor. The prosecutor will then want to visit with the victim, explain the process, many times let the parents know right from the beginning that they will do everything in the power of the law to get a conviction; however, because of shows like CSI and Law &Order many jury’s find it hard to convict a sex offender when it is their word against a child’s. Of course no parent would be willing to give up that easily and want to pursue in the conviction, the next move is to take the evidence in front of the grand jury. When and if the grand jury decides to proceed, it is at that time an arrest and a bail is set. Keep in mind from start the child coming forward to the grand jury decision the time frame is 3-6 months. Once the arrest is made there are pretrial’s and motions that will last at least 6 months to a year, parents who can’t take much more are usually left with 2 option, allow for plea deal of time served or the accused does not have to be on the sex offender registry, or they can drop the charges and move on. As time moves forward if the victim and parents can hang on, when the trial approaches they get to listen to accusation of what is going to said to their child, and possibly what they will be accused of. The days of leading up to the trial will offer many plea offers, rejections, just a complete emotional roller coaster at which time the trial will begin.
In conclusion to convict a sex offender it is no easy task, nor is it a quick one. In total 1-2 years is normal to gain a conviction, if a family is lucky when the arrest is made the accused sex offender may not be able to make bond, leaving them in jail until after they are convicted. Of course that is if the jury selected actually convicts the accused, remember a victim that has been through counseling for over a year is not going to appear as traumatized as one that was just molested
And again, for the umpteenth time, the problem is KNOWN sex offenders, many of which have admitted what they did, being shuffled around and protected by their superiors until the RCC was FORCED to deal with this when the bad publicity offered them no options.
THAT’S the travesty.
Likely if the molesting priest and culpable covering up hierarchy hadn’t given people reason to make false accusations, there wouldn’t be any and I really don’t believe that there are all that many false accusations against priests. They are held in too high regard by the laity.
The thought of impropriety of that kind by a priest or nun NEVER entered my mind as a Catholic. I find it hard to believe that a child would make up that kind of accusation against a priest of all people, even if they knew what sex was. Even a child has the fear of priests and their ability to retain their sins and condemn them ingrained into them and even a child is more than capable of realizing that when it’s a he said/she said situation between an adult and a child, the adult will be believed by default.
A child coming forth with details that no child should know should be taken seriously.
yes, if there was a molestation then this is an emotional roller coaster for the child and the woman or man should fry for it.
if, however, this is no more than an accusation with no proof, then it is an emotional rollercoaster for the person accused and what is worse is that EVEN if proven innocent beyond doubt, even if, as in this case, the accuser withdraws the accusation, the muck remains, the person's reputation and life is destroyed -- they cannot "move away and pick it up again" as you state.
Tomorrow someone could accuse you or anyone of molestation with no evidence. Whether proven innocent, the stigma will remain, your life is destroyed, no matter how "stellar" you are.