Gilbert Gauthe

Gilbert Gauthe is an American former Catholic priest who served in the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana from 1972 to 1983. In 1984, Gauthe became the first Catholic priest in the United States to face a widely publicized criminal trial for child sexual abuse.

Gauthe admitted to sexually abusing 37 children and accepted a plea bargain in which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released in 1995 after serving 10 years of his sentence, then moved to Texas, where he was later charged with sexually abusing a 3-year-old boy. He was sentenced to probation in 1997 after pleading guilty to abusing the child. He was later jailed in Galveston County between 2008 and 2010 for violating the Texas sex offender registry requirements.

Gauthe's crimes inspired the 1990 HBO TV film Judgment.