Slain Priest Harassed by Guards, Report Says

Prison guards harassed pedophile priest John Geoghan and wrote trumped-up disciplinary reports that landed the former clergyman in the dangerous-inmate unit, where he was strangled and beaten by a fellow prisoner, according to a report released Tuesday.

Investigators said a series of “overzealous and unwarranted” reports by a handful of guards led to the frail, 68-year-old Geoghan being classified as one of the state’s most dangerous prisoners and sent to the high-security unit at a correctional center.

“It’s absolutely shown in this report that under no circumstances should John Geoghan have been in the special housing unit at Souza-Baranowski Corrections facility,” state Public Safety Secretary Edward Flynn told the Associated Press.

Geoghan was killed by Joseph Druce last August as he and other inmates returned to their cells after lunch, authorities said.

Druce, who is serving a life sentence for killing a gay man, has been charged with murder. Authorities say Druce followed Geoghan into his cell, then jammed the door shut, and beat and strangled Geoghan.

No evidence was uncovered that guards, despite allegations some had a grudge against Geoghan, set him up to be killed. The report found that Druce worked “alone and in secret,” and that there was nothing to indicate anyone at the prison -- inmate or employee -- knew of his plans to harm Geoghan.

However, the investigation found that the disciplinary reports “were more the result of personal animus against [Geoghan] than serious infractions that required formal findings.”

Geoghan was the priest at the center of the Boston Archdiocese’s sex abuse scandal. At the time of his death, he was accused in civil lawsuits of molesting nearly 150 children over three decades and was serving a nine- to 10-year sentence for groping a 10-year-old boy.

Geoghan’s lawyers said they had complained to corrections officials that guards were mistreating Geoghan but that their complaints were ignored.