New Orleans (Louisiana, USA), December 19 (LaPresse/AP) – A former Catholic priest, 93 years old, has been sentenced to life in prison by a judge in New Orleans Criminal Court for sexually assaulting a teenager in the mid-1970s. Lawrence Hecker pleaded guilty to charges including first-degree rape and aggravated kidnapping just moments before jury selection for his trial, which was scheduled to begin this month. Hecker was ordained as a priest in the archdiocese in 1958 and left the ministry in 2002.
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