Serial Molester Pleads Guilty

A former church youth leader and YMCA swim coach pleaded guilty Monday in what prosecutors called the largest sex abuse case in Massachusetts history.

Christopher Reardon, 29, had faced 130 charges including rape, molestation and disseminating pornography involving 29 boys. His trial on 120 of those charges was to have begun Monday.

Reardon swore to tell the truth, then took the stand in Salem Superior Court on Monday to respond individually to each of the counts against him at a hearing the judge said could last several hours.

With his head bowed and a frown on his face, Reardon responded "guilty" to 75 different charges, including "unlawful unnatural sexual intercourse" with boys, masturbating boys and distribution of pornography.

His attorney said Reardon decided to plead guilty — without any promises of a lenient sentence — because he wanted to spare the boys more harm.

Reardon faces life in prison when he is sentenced on August 18.

"The defendant essentially exploited his position of authority and trust," prosecutor Robert Brennan said.

About 50 family members and friends of the victims, as well as six boys, listened to the pleas. Several sobbed as the details were explained, and many embraced when the judge formally accepted the plea.

The victims all were identified as John Does.

As many as 18 boys were expected to testify if all the cases had gone to court. Reardon could still face trial in the future on the remaining counts.

Reardon led religion classes for children at St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church in Middleton, 20 miles north of Boston. He also directed the Danvers YMCA Summer Day Camp. Prosecutors said he used both jobs to "systematically" befriend boys before his arrest last year.

Prosecutors say the abuse began in 1996. According to court records, police confiscated at least two dozen pornographic videos, photographs of nude children, inflatable dolls and sex toys from Reardon's home and office at the church. They also found a videotape of Reardon masturbating with a boy in the church rectory and instructions on how to have sex with young boys - and what to do if they show reluctance.

The molester's then-wife also discovered in their nightstand dozens of pages of charts and computerized spreadsheets filled with meticulous notes and descriptions of boys and how Reardon allegedly assaulted them.

Investigators said a list they found in Reardon's Middleton home contained the names of 250 boys, ages 5 to 14.

In May, Judge Isaac Borenstein moved Reardon's trial to Northampton, some 90 miles west, out of concern he wouldn't get an impartial jury close to home. Middleton is about 20 miles north of Boston.

"The whole town can't wait to get this over with so we can move on," said Susan Santa Barbara, a third-grade teacher who taught catechism classes with Reardon at St. Agnes Church.

Santa Barbara said her two sons were not among the alleged victims, but she said they knew Reardothrough church and scouting programs.

"It's just too eerie to walk into that church where he was molesting those boys," she said. "But the issue comes up everywhere. You'll be at a barbecue or at the market, and someone is talking about it. It's really shocked our community."

"I feel terrible for everyone involved. It's such a terrible thing because they were all people we grew up with," said Sonja Nathan, 41. "I think it will be good when it's all over."

Throughout Sunday, Middleton residents pored over newspaper stories in coffee shops, listened to advice from church leaders and lingered on street corners, absorbing the most recent twist in the story that first thrust the town into the national spotlight on June 10, 2000, when Reardon was arrested.

From the pulpit of St. Agnes Church Sunday, the Rev. Richard Driscoll looked out over the rows of parishioners and seemed awed by the turnout.

"I am edified by your faith every time you come," Driscoll told his congregation Sunday, calling the last year a "terrible ordeal."

Faith has been sorely tested in Middleton since Reardon, a trusted church youth leader, was accused in the state's largest child-molestation case.

At St. Agnes, where Reardon taught catechism to dozens of children, the outrage was even more personal. It was there that some of his alleged assaults had been videotaped.

"We want this behind us," Angelo Cathaldo said outside the church.

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