Robert Sullivan, 61, on ‘personal leave’ after Heather Jones, now 33, brought allegations, sexual in nature, to diocese

Robert Sullivan, 61, on ‘personal leave’ after Heather Jones, now 33, brought allegations, sexual in nature, to diocese

A Roman Catholic priest in Alabama is under investigation, church officials say – and he abruptly announced he is taking “personal leave” – after a woman alleged to his superiors that he traded financial support for “private companionship” including sex, beginning when she was 17.

The accuser, Heather Jones, has also alleged that the clergyman, Robert Sullivan, recently paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars to remain silent about it, a claim she supported with bank records, an email and a copy of a legal agreement.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    111·
    2 days ago

    he traded financial support for “private companionship”

    Uh… traded to whom? I feel like there are a few extra culprits involved in this.

    she tried to make ends meet by working as a dancer at an “adult establishment” outside Birmingham.

    Jones reported meeting Sullivan at that establishment when she was 17. He was a regular patron, tipped her during her shifts and soon offered to “help change [her] life” if she called him on his phone number, she wrote.

    Sullivan proposed “to form an ongoing relationship that would include financial support in exchange for private companionship”, wrote Jones, who told the Guardian that the term encompassed sex.

    A club pimping out underage girls is bad on its face. A state that turns a blind eye seems complicit on multiple fronts.