Abusers’ payroll

Hampton, New Hampshire --

In 1983, Reverend Gordon MacRae was involved in a child-molestation incident in Hampton. The victim was a 14-year-old boy. Shortly afterward, the Diocese of Manchester assigned MacRae to St. Bernard’s Church in Keene, where he became associate pastor. No one at St. Bernard’s knew about the Hampton matter, but church officials did. They had even notified the N.H. Attorney General’s Office, which decided not to prosecute.

Four years later, MacRae became acting parish administrator at St. Bernard’s, replacing Reverend Steven W. Scruton, who had just been convicted of indecent exposure and was being sent off for what was described as intensive counseling. Unbeknownst to local parishioners, Scruton had been arrested in 1984 after a similar incident in Londonderry, but charges were dropped. When he left Keene, Scruton moved to Dover. But, instead of being counseled, he became a counselor himself — to sex offenders in a Massachusetts prison.

In Keene, MacRae took on a new assignment in addition to his church duties. He was named executive director of Monadnock Region Substance Abuse Inc. That position brought him into contact with troubled children at the Spofford Hall rehabilitation center, where he also said mass. The Diocese of Manchester raised no alarms.

MacRae was arrested in November 1988 and pleaded guilty to offering to pay a child to have sex with him. Keene city officials then publicly urged the Diocese of Manchester to make sure that MacRae’s future church assignments, if any, would not bring him into contact with any more young people.

Read the article at The Keene Sentinel Editorial dated February 26, 2005

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