Admitted child rapist and retired priest Lawrence Hecker dies aged 93
Former Roman Catholic clergyman dies a little more than a week after beginning life sentence, according to officials
An undated photo of Lawrence Hecker. Photograph: Provided photo
December 27, 2024
By Ramon Antonio Vargas and David Hammer of WWL Louisiana in New Orleans
Admitted child rapist and retired Roman Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker has died a little more than a week after he began serving a sentence of life imprisonment, officials said on Friday.
Hecker, 93, had pleaded guilty on 3 December to charges that he had kidnapped and raped a teenager at a New Orleans church in 1975. He had received a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment on 18 December and, four days later, had been transferred to a Louisiana prison known as Elayn Hunt, according to the state’s department of corrections spokesperson Ken Pastorick.
Pastorick said Hecker died at about 3am on 26 December, at Elayn Hunt, of what were described as natural causes.
Hecker’s attorney Robert Hjortsberg said Hecker was meant to eventually be sent to Louisiana’s maximum-security state penitentiary, which is nicknamed Angola, before his death.
Hjortsberg’s co-counsel, Eugene Redmann, said Hecker’s health had been deteriorating.
The child rape survivor who successfully pursued criminal charges against Hecker said on Friday that he felt “vindicated and free” upon learning of his abuser’s death, which occurred about 15 months after the priest was indicted in the 1975 assault and arrested.
“I can’t find any words of kindness for his passing,” the survivor said. “The words ‘may he rest in peace’ are so hollow.
Citing an empty feeling that he had been harboring since Hecker’s sentencing, the survivor added: “He received man’s justice, had his freedom taken away for 15 months, now the only prayer I can come up with: I hope he spends eternity in hell after God’s judgment of him.”
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