A former priest at the centre of the Catholic church's sex abuse scandal in the US has been killed in prison. John Geoghan was a convicted child molester.
He was injured in an incident with another inmate and died shortly after being taken to hospital.
US Department Of Correction spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said Geoghan was being held in protective custody but still had some contact with other inmates.
The other inmate was being held in isolation and the incident is under investigation. She declined to give further details.
In civil lawsuits, more than 130 people have claimed Geoghan sexually abused them as children during his three decades as a priest at Boston-area parishes.
He was convicted last year of indecent assault and battery for fondling a 10-year-old boy at a swimming pool.
Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer for many of Geoghan's victims, said he was "surprised and shocked" by the former priest's death.
"Many of my clients would have rather seen Father Geoghan serve out his time in jail and endure the rigours of further criminal trials, so that his paedophile acts could have been exposed further," he said.
The church abuse scandal, which has had repercussions worldwide, broke in early 2002 with revelations that the Boston Archdiocese had shuttled Geoghan from parish to parish despite warnings about his behaviour.
PA