A 91-year-old retired Catholic priest, previously identified by the Archdiocese of New Orleans as being “credibly accused” of sexual abuse, is now facing charges for the alleged sexual assault of a teenage boy in 1975. An indictment by a Louisiana state grand jury includes charges of aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature, and theft against Lawrence Hecker. According to the victim’s lawyer, Hecker allegedly choked the teenager unconscious under the pretext of teaching him a wrestling move before sexually assaulting him at a church connected to a Catholic high school. Although the boy and his mother reported the incident to the school, no action was taken, as reported by the Guardian.
This is one of numerous accusations against Hecker that have emerged throughout his years in the ministry. Another lawyer representing an alleged victim refers to his abuse of teenage boys as “chronic and sustained,” according to the New York Times. A man claims that Hecker groped him and his classmates at St. Joseph’s Catholic School near New Orleans in the late 1960s, pretending to demonstrate a hernia examination. Another alleged victim states that Hecker made altar boys undress so he could inspect their bodies and engage in inappropriate touching in a changing room at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in 1983.
In 1999, Hecker confessed to the archdiocese that he had participated in “overtly sexual acts” with at least three boys during the 1960s and ’70s and had developed close relationships with four other boys until the 1980s, as previously reported by the Guardian. He was sent to an out-of-state psychiatric treatment facility, where he was diagnosed as a pedophile. However, he was permitted to continue his work in the ministry, including interactions with children, until his retirement in 2002. The archdiocese, which paid over $332,000 to settle five sexual abuse allegations against Hecker, did not publicly identify him as a suspected predator until 2018. Nonetheless, a spokesperson claims that since 2002, the archdiocese “reported Lawrence Hecker to law enforcement authorities in different jurisdictions (multiple) times.”
New Orleans district attorney Jason Williams denounced the fact that the school took no action when the victim shared his experience, stating that “the fact that a child went to [his school] and told them what happened and nothing happened is a sin and a shame,” according to the Guardian. Williams further remarked that Hecker “should have been prosecuted a long time ago,” but the disclosure of information and evidence required persistent efforts in the courts and behind the scenes. Moving forward, he affirmed that they would utilize every statement made by Hecker against him, as per NOLA.com. According to the victim’s lawyer, his client’s indictment comes after participating in multiple interviews with authorities over a year, as reported by the Guardian. In Louisiana, there is no statute of limitations for rape cases. (Read more priest sex abuse stories.)
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