A former priest will spend 20 to 40 years behind bars for sexually abusing students during his time at a Michigan high school in the 1980s.
James Rapp, 75, faced six of his victims during a sentencing hearing in Jackson on Friday.
They described for more than two hours how Rapp coerced them into having sexual contact while working as a teacher and wrestling coach at Jackson's Lumen Christi High School.
'He knelt beside the bed I was in - he had a bed - held my hand, said the Lord's prayer and then climbed in bed with me, had his way with me,' former student John Wood said.
Rapp, who is currently serving a 40-year sentence in Oklahoma for lewd molestation according to the
Jackson Citizen Patriot, pleaded no contest to criminal sexual conduct in February.
He worked at Lumen Christi High School between 1980 and 1986, acting as a teacher, coach, maintenance supervisor and as a Roman Catholic priest.
'His crime and position was a murder on my soul,' Andy Russell, also a former student at the school, told the court on Friday.
'He's a monster and his path of destruction extends far further than it ever should have.'
Russell then said he was kicked out of Lumen Christi after disclosing the abuse to the school's first principal, Reverend Joseph Coyle.
He called the dismissal 'the best thing that ever happened to me'.
Wood said he had once been made to share a room with Rapp during a school trip to Detroit and that the priest had abused him during the stay.
Coyle later made him disclose the abuse during confession, Wood said according to the Jackson Citizen Patriot.
Wood told the court Coyle had said in Latin: 'Some sins are so awful, we cannot talk about them.'
'I was told I would go to hell if I ever talked about what I said in confessional,' he added. 'Well, if I'm going to hell for being here today, I'll see Coyle there and we can talk about it some more.'
Rapp worked in Philadelphia; Salt Lake City; Naperville, Illinois; Duncan, Oklahoma; Jackson, Michigan and Lockport, New York before being defrocked as a priest.
An investigation in Michigan began in 2013 when victims approached the sheriff's department. Some said they complained to school officials in the 1980s but no action was taken.
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'I think it's evident that the only way to heal, move forward and to protect others from this same thing is to bring it out into the open,' Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaiti said of the victims.
'Shed light on it, and expose the truth. And they've done that. They are true heroes in a horrible situation.'