A priest and a former Catholic school teacher convicted earlier this year of molesting a 10-year-old Northeast altar boy will be sentenced April 18 by Common Pleas Court Judge Ellen Ceisler.
The Rev. Charles Engelhardt is facing up to 37 years in prison, and former parochial school teacher Bernard Shero could get up to 57 years.
On Jan. 30, both men were convicted of sexually abusing the boy at St. Jerome’s parish in Holme Circle in the late 1990s.
Engelhardt, an Oblate of St. Francis DeSales, was accused of assaulting the 10-year-old boy after he caught him sipping leftover sacramental wine after a Mass at St. Jerome’s Church. Prosecutors said Shero, a teacher at the parish school, offered the boy a ride home in his car, and instead stopped at Pennypack Park and raped him in a parking lot. He then told the boy to walk home, according to a grand jury report on the case.
Shero had faced five counts, and jurors found him guilty of all. Engelhardt was found guilty on all counts except one. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charge of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of a child.
Engelhardt was convicted of endangering welfare of children, corruption of minors, indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age and conspiracy.
Shero was convicted of rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, endangering welfare of children, corruption of minors and indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age.
Both men have been in protective custody since jurors announced their verdicts.
For up-to-the-minute information on this case, visit www.northeasttimes.com on Thursday, April 18. ••
