Duane Gray says the priest at his Connecticut parish began sexually abusing him around 1974, when he was 12 years old. He told his parents, but they didn’t believe it and beat him repeatedly. Then they kicked him out of the house when he was about 16, and he found himself living in the woods.
Gray, 62, came forward publicly Tuesday to tell his story in the hopes it would allow some healing for himself and other victims of clergy sexual abuse. Last month, he said he reached a six-figure settlement with the Archdiocese of Hartford over his claims about the Rev. Daniel McSheffery, who died in 2014.
“Being able to talk about it, being able to have a resolution in my case meant everything,” Gray said during a video conference with his lawyer and reporters. “It would help me greatly, personally, if we can just stop one case from happening or more. And … that’s what I’m striving for — to shine a light on it and to keep it alive so that they can’t brush it under the rug just by paying people off.”…