Priest flees to Ireland after civil jury finds him guilty of child sex abuse- VIDEO

Stockton is in the north central part of the state, not Southern California. Get it straight. The reporter's lack of even basic US geography knowledge shows a general disrespect for California and Californians. And it makes me wonder what other facts and information he slacked on.

Oldboreen: Kelly WAS found guilty by a civil jury on Good Friday, April 6, 2012 and was immediately stripped of his duties.

HermitTalker: At least six victims have now come forward to the police, and the Sheriff's are investigating in Calaveras County in California as we speak. The story has most certainly NOT gone viral outside the Stockton area in California. No other papers in the rest of California were writing about this case at all until Kelly fled to Ireland. And certainly nowhere else in the US did any stories appear on this. From my own experience, and also law enforcement will tell you, is that media exposure is the best way to get victims to come forward. Dumb move on his part to go to Ireland as now papers like the Los Angeles Times are picking up the story, as well as the Associated Press.

I call this group of Pedophile Priests, who are free to roam from country to country (no pun intended), "Pedophile Priests Without Borders!" To MartInNJ: The ONLY excuse that I can think of that the Church hasn't used in the defense of Pedophile Priests is, "They are ALIENS from outer space!" I hope that your post won't give Rome a new idea!

And a California jury found O.J. Simpson innocent

I happen to be a California lawyer of 32 years and raised Catholic. I have no respect for the Roman Imperialist Church's celibacy and suspect that it played a role here. But, I am not convinced from the circumstances here that this priest is guilty as convicted.

Actually oldboren, the judge and jury were in California and the HAVE FOUND HIM GUILTY. Enough of this fantasy living 'he may be innocent'. Ane he may be an alien from outer space also.

The American and Irish church hierarchies must order this priest back to the United States to face both the civil and criminal charges against him. If they fail to follow the law then they will continue to labeled pedeophile protectors. Their sins and crimes will be as great as his. It is shameless for this priest called Michael Kelly thinks he is above the law and above justice. It is the same mentality that child abusers have. That justice does not apply to them. Shame on the churches that have allowed this.

As this appears to me: this allegation is dated approx. 27 years ago, only brought forward in 2007 when the lid had already blown on this epidemic several years before. IF there were others, then the publicity in 2002 which was viral and this allegation would have given others opportunity to come forward. I have seen and heard enough of this topic that the accused priests have no chance of a fair trial- the publicity worldwide has made it so difficult. I also worked enough with the law to know that juries are not all prone to give "liberty and justice for all", nor are elected prosecutors in the USA above a little grand-standing, to put it mildly. The bishops went back over 50 years to report all allegations, many of which were never examined with civil and church lawyers and never went beyond that. There are "Statistics, stastitics and damned lies" as Twain put it. There are a lot of axe grinders for this topic. I am always on the side of those who do not know the facts, so I brake for caution.

@oldboreen: He HAS been found guilty, read the first line of the article.

A priest in England was recently woken in the middle of the night by police, arrested and taken to a police station, where he was held for some time before being released because of a flimsy, false accusation. Another priest told me this story. He said that good priests (let's not forget the overwhelming majority - is it 98%? - are good priests), live in fear of these accusations - there's big money to be made. It is a tragedy that priests betrayed their vocation and destroyed the lives of innocent children but let us Catholics not forget (because the media, Irish Central included will keep on reminding us, making us think that it's only Catholic priests who've abused children) that it was a small (though treacherous) minority of them.

Not saying he isn't guilty however, as another reader stated, one case from 30yrs ago? Rapists rarely stop at one, they have no control over the evil within and tend to commit multiple offences. If he really is innocent, you couldn't blame him for fleeing to the safety of family.

If kids and their parents had felt they could have taken their accusations to the RCC hierarchy and received a proper inquiry and justice at the time of the offense, this all could have been avoided. This is what happens when the climate is "how dare you accuse a PRIEST?" and "go away and keep your mouth shut or we'll punish you." Sweeping everything under the rug makes it difficult years later to always know what the truth is and for a priest to defend himself. I don't know know if he's guilty or not, but I know he'd have had an easier time in proving his innocence earlier then he does now, so many years later. Unfortunately, priests today are paying for the practices of the RCC hierarchy of the past who had the idea that they could not and would not ever be held accountable for their actions - no matter how many children they abused and how they covered it up.

Fleeing the scene usually points to involvement in a crime. If he was innocent he should have stood his ground and gone through the trial. Cowarldy action I'd say.

Hey hold on estatdigiwank!-he has hasn't been found guilty! He may well have commited the offence of which he is accused-on the other hand, he may not be guilty! So you are judge and jury?? So much for 'innocent until proven guilty'.Unless of course, you WANT him to be guilty whether guilty or not!