Ray Mouton, a former Lafayette attorney who defended Acadiana pedophile priest Gilbert Gauthe in the 1980s and later worked to expose cover-ups by the Catholic Church, died in a New Orleans area hospital Thursday at 78 years of age, our media partners at The Advocate report.
Gauthe is believed to be the first priest in the United States accused, prosecuted and convicted of child sex abuse in the United States.
The case preceded the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” series that exposed wide-ranging pedophilia in the Catholic Church and the Church’s coverup.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette in 1984 hired Mouton to defend Gauthe, who admitted he sexually abuse at least 34 children, many of them from small churches in rural Vermilion Parish.
To read The Advocate's full story, click here.
