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Fr. Thomas P. Ganley, 64, of Phillipsburg admitted abusing the girl from when she was 14 until she was 17, beginning in 1990, while he was a priest at St. Cecelia Church in the Iselin section of Woodbridge.
Ganley had supervisory authority over the victim as head of the Youth Ministry for the parish, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said.
The charges were the first ever brought by the New Jersey Clergy Abuse Task Force, which Grewal created last September to investigate allegations of clergy abuse.
In addition to the prison sentence, Ganley will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be prohibited from having any contact with the victim, as well as from having unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18.
“This prison sentence demonstrates that we take these allegations of sexual abuse by clergy members very seriously and will act swiftly to secure justice for survivors,” Grewal said.
It also proved that "even if the abuse occurred many years ago, charges may still be viable and we will pursue them vigorously," he said.
Grewal added that the task force "we will work equally hard to determine if the Church was aware of the abuse but failed to take action or prevent it from recurring, which will be the subject of a state grand jury presentment and report.
"We’ll do everything in our power to expose these past wrongs and hold wrongdoers accountable.”
Although the conviction is the first of its kind obtained by the state, "it should not be the last as other survivors and witnesses see that justice can be served," said former Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert Laurino, who heads the task force.
Laurino encouraged them to come forward.
Ganley was assigned to Saint Philip & Saint James Church in Phillipsburg when he was arrested in January -- just two days after the victim called the Clergy Abuse Task Force Hotline to report him, authorities said.
He pleaded guilty in April to second-degree sexual assault as part of a plea deal.
Assistant Prosecutor Allysa Gambarella and Detectives Paul Kelley and Julissa Alvarado handled the case for the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, which has members assigned to the Clergy Abuse Task Force.
The attorney general established the special team in response to the publication of a report by a grand jury in Pennsylvania outlining allegations of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests against more than 1,000 victims uncovered in a multi-year investigation there.
Task force members investigate allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy within the Catholic dioceses of New Jersey, as well as any attempted coverups.
Detectives and prosecutors from all 21 New Jersey county prosecutors’ offices and the state Division of Criminal Justice participate – using documents and subpoenas to compel testimony before grand juries, among other measures.
The task force is also conducting a comprehensive review of existing Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) between the Catholic dioceses of New Jersey and state law enforcement.The MOUs, entered in 2002, mandated that the dioceses establish policies and procedures to ensure their leaders and employees report information to prosecutors about potential cases of sexual abuse within their churches and cooperate in any resulting law enforcement investigations.
The task force, as part of its mission, is determining whether the dioceses complied with the MOUs’ mandatory reporting requirements and whether any additional action is necessary, Grewal said.
Veronica Allende, the director of the state Division of Criminal Justices urged "all survivors, witnesses of sexual abuse, and others with information" to call a Clergy Abuse Hotline established by Grewal.
It is staffed by trained professionals around the clock.
More than 540 calls had been received through the hotline through Sunday.
The Clergy Abuse Hotline: 855-363-6548.
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