Scranton priest pleads guilty to sex abuse charges

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania -

A suspended Roman Catholic clergyman was sentenced to five years probation after pleading guilty to sexually molesting an altar boy while he was a parish priest in the Diocese of Scranton.

The Rev. Albert M. Liberatore Jr., 41, of Scranton, was charged last year after the victim, now 20, told police that he became involved with the priest when he was an eighth-grade altar boy at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Duryea.

Investigators said that the man described meeting Liberatore regularly for dinners, sleeping twice a week in his residence at the rectory and going with him on trips to New York City, where he said Liberatore took him to gay bars and they had sexual contact at hotels.

Liberatore pleaded guilty Wednesday in Luzerne County Court to indecent assault, corruption of minors, furnishing alcohol to a minor and child endangerment.

Read the article at AP Wire Dated May 18, 2005

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