Boston Area News

WORCESTER (AP) ― A jury on Wednesday found prison inmate Joseph Druce guilty of first-degree murder in the strangulation of pedophile priest John Geoghan, a central figure in Boston's clergy sex abuse scandal.

Druce admitted sneaking into Geoghan's cell in August 2003. He jammed the door shut with a book, then beat and strangled the 68-year-old Geoghan before the guards could stop him.

But Druce claimed he was severely mentally ill and under the delusion that God had chosen him to kill Geoghan and send a message to pedophiles around the world.

Testimony in the case largely centered on whether Druce was insane, or whether the killing was the work of a "calculating" murderer, as prosecutors alleged.

The jury of five women and seven men deliberated for about six hours over two days before reaching the guilty verdict early Wednesday afternoon.

Druce arrived in court Wednesday sporting a black eye and welt on his face that his lawyer said was the result of a jailhouse beating on Tuesday night.

The Department of Correction disputed the claim, saying prison surveillance video shows no evidence of such a beating and that medical personnel saw Druce afterward and didn't notice any injuries. They noted, "Druce has a long history (of) self-injurious behavior."

Prosecutor Lawrence Murphy told jurors that Druce was a conniving killer who planned the murder for weeks so he could be a "big shot" in prison.

"He was not a mentally ill person, raging out of control," Murphy said. "He's a calculating individual who waited for his opportunity."

The 40-year-old Druce is already serving a life sentence for killing a man who allegedly made a sexual pass at him after picking Druce up hitchhiking. He unsuccessfully used an insanity defense during that 1989 trial.

With the conviction, he'll face another life sentence without the possibility of parole.

When Druce took the witness stand, he described a troubled childhood in which his father beat him and his mother. He said he was physically and sexually abused as a preteen at a residential school for troubled children.

"This is a kid who never had a chance," his lawyer, John LaChance, said in his closing argument.

Druce said he killed Geoghan to avenge the innocent children the defrocked priest was accused of molesting.

He said he was driven to kill after hearing Geoghan advise other inmates on how to molest children and say he planned to move to South America after prison so he could resume working with children.

"I had seen myself as the designated individual who had to put a stop to the pedophilia in the church," Druce said.

At the time of his death, Geoghan was in prison for fondling a 10-year-old boy, but he was accused in lawsuits of sexually abusing some 150 children.

His case helped spark the clergy sex abuse scandal worldwide after church personnel records released under court order revealed that the Boston Archdiocese transferred Geoghan from parish to parish even after allegations of abuse surfaced.

Murphy, the prosecutor, focused his closing argument on the planning that allegedly went into Geoghan's killing. Druce told investigators he spent two hours stretching socks into the rope he used to strangle Geoghan, and he made friendly visits to Geoghan's cell so the defrocked priest wouldn't suspect anything when he came to kill him, the prosecutor said.

He urged the jury not to let Geoghan's notoriety as a pedophile influence their decision.

"No one likes pedophiles, but we can't go around grabbing pedophiles and killing them," Murphy said. "The law doesn't give Mr. Druce that right."

A defense psychiatrist testified that Druce suffered from several mental illnesses, including severe attention deficit disorder, dissociative disorder, intermittent explosive disorder and a personality disorder with symptoms of paranoia and anti-social behavior.

Keith Ablow of New England Medical Center said Druce suffered greatly during his childhood and was unable to control his rage.

When Druce allegedly overheard Geoghan talking about his plans to get out of prison and leave the country so he could molest more children, it brought back painful memories of Druce's own rapes, Ablow said.

"He came to see himself as an avenger of those acts," Ablow said, "and that led directly to (Geoghan's murder)."

(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)