Ex-priest serving sentence for child sex abuse dies at Maine correctional facility

Defrocked Priest Ronald Paquin Dies in Maine Prison

Charleston, Maine – Ronald Paquin, a former Roman Catholic priest who was convicted of sexually abusing a boy in the 1980s, died on Friday at the Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston. The 83‑year‑old inmate, who had spent more than a decade in prison in Massachusetts and 16 years in Maine, was pronounced dead by medical staff after his body was found.

Paquin had been a parish priest in the Boston area until the early 2000s, when the Boston Globe’s investigation into clergy sexual abuse brought him to public attention. He was later stripped of his clerical status and sentenced to ten years in Massachusetts for the molestation of an altar boy. After serving that term, Paquin was released and resumed a low‑profile life.

In 2015, Maine authorities arrested Paquin when he returned to the state on a trip to visit a former parishioner. Prosecutors charged him with 11 counts of gross sexual misconduct for sexual abuse that took place in Maine during the 1980s. The case was tried in the York County Superior Court and concluded in November 2018 with a conviction on all charges. In May 2019, a judge sentenced Paquin to 20 years in prison, with 16 years suspended and 4 years to be served. The remaining 16 years were to be served in a Maine prison. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court upheld the convictions on 10 of the 11 counts on April 23, 2020.

The Department of Corrections confirmed Paquin’s death, noting that medical personnel had responded to the incident. The Attorney General’s Office and the Medical Examiner’s Office were notified, but the correctional facility has not released a cause of death.

Paquin’s case remains one of several in Maine that highlight the continued fallout from the national Catholic Church sexual‑abuse scandal. The state’s Department of Corrections declined to comment further on the circumstances of his death.