Ex-priest now faces 31 charges of sex abuse One of the victims is from Seabrook

KENNEBUNKPORT - A York County Grand jury has re-indicted a former Catholic priest from Boston on additional charges alleging he repeatedly sexually abused young boys in Kennebunkport in the late 1980's.

Ronald Paquin, 75, was originally indicted on 29 counts of sexual misconduct last February stemming from an investigation by Kennebunkport police after one of the victims contacted them. He was re-indicted last week with two new charges, bringing the total now to 31.

Paquin has been held at the York County Jail since his arrest in February at a homeless shelter in Boston.

According to Kennebunkport Police Chief Craig Sanford, the two new charges filed last week stem from one of the victims remembering two more events during the course of the ongoing investigation.

The defrocked priest, formerly of the Boston archdiocese, served more than a decade in a Massachusetts prison for abusing an altar boy from 1989 to 1992 while serving as associate pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He was a central figure in the Boston archdiocese's sex abuse scandal. He pleaded guilty to raping an altar boy in 2002 and was released in 2015.

Paquin's attorney, Heather Gonzalez of Strike, Gonzales & Butler Bailey law firm in Portland, did not return calls for comment prior to deadline for this story.

Paquin's two alleged victims in the indictments were 11 and 14 years old at the time of the alleged abuse, which took place between 1985 and 1988 at two seasonal locations in Kennebunkport.

Keith Townsend, of Seabrook, New Hampshire, said in an interview with Seacoast Media Group in February that Paquin's release from jail in 2015 prompted him to contact Kennebunkport police again, leading to the indictments.

He first met Paquin when he arrived at St. John the Baptist Church, his family's church, in 1981.

Townsend said he was molested by Paquin approximately between the ages of 8 and 13. He said Paquin used alcohol and drugs to control and sedate him during the period of abuse. He said he was one of about 10 other young boys abused together during trips to a camp in Kennebunkport, and that he personally knows the other victim tied to the new indictments.

Townsend reached out to police after Paquin was released from prison, leading to the original 29 indictments.

Sanford said his department has been working on the investigation off and on since Townsend first came forward in 2011.

Townsend reached a private settlement in 2010 with the Boston archdiocese, receiving a check for $140,000 and guaranteed medical coverage, including for medication. He then decided to go to the Kennebunkport Police Department, where he told an officer in a video interview about the abuse, but said he did not contact the department again until Paquin was freed in 2015.

"I was under the impression he was in jail for the rest of his life," said Townsend. "When they released him, simple outrage. Nobody is safe as long as this guy's on the street."