WILMINGTON, Del. (KYW Newsradio) — Two men have been arrested and charged on multiple counts of sexual abuse that date back nearly three decades.
Delaware’s Attorney General alleges 80-year-old John Taggart and 57-year-old Christopher Crisona sexually abused a child between 1994 and 1996.
An anonymous report to the Diocese of Wilmington accused Taggart and another now-deceased priest of sexual abuse, which led Wilmington police to investigate.
Investigators say Taggart repeatedly abused the victim during their 7th and 8th grade years at St. Thomas the Apostle, where Taggart was a priest from 1987 to 1998, and that the abuse continued when the victim left St. Thomas for high school.
Taggart was sent to St. John the Apostle in Milford in January 2001, then St. Helena’s in Wilmington before resigning from the active ministry in 2004 and settling in Georgia.
Investigators also allege Christopher Crisona, who taught at St. Thomas from 1994-1995 and part of the next school year, abused the same victim.
Crisona was removed from St. Thomas midway through 1995-1996 following a student complaint, later working at St. Matthew, Corpus Christi, and St. Hedwig, all in Wilmington. He’s currently teaching elementary school in Florida.
Both are charged with multiple felonies relating to sexual abuse of a child. The Delaware Department of Justice is seeking other potential victims, given “the nature of the allegations and the defendants’ professional history.” Anyone with information can reach out to ReportAbuse@delaware.gov or call 302-577-5293.