A retired Alabama Episcopal priest is set to go to trial soon for allegedly raping a child at a New Hampshire Boy Scout camp 48 years ago.
Richard R. Losch, 90, a former rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Livingston, was indicted by a New Hampshire grand jury on Aug. 18, 2023.
Losch’s final pre-trial conference is scheduled for May 20, with jury selection beginning on June 3.
The alleged victim of Losch, in an interview with AL.com, asked that he not be named, but said Losch was director of Indian Pond Boy Scout Reservation in Piermont, New Hampshire in 1976.
Losch, the alleged victim said, took several boys there and encouraged them to swim and walk around naked, and manipulated sleeping arrangements so that Losch had to share a bed with one of the Boy Scouts.
He said Losch forcibly raped him when he was 12. He is 60 now. He reported the allegation to police in 2021.
Losch has publicly denied the allegation.
“On the advice of my attorney, I have no comment to make other than that the charge is totally false, and I deny all allegations of wrongdoing,” he told the Marblehead Current of Marblehead, Massachusetts, where the alleged victim lives.
The Episcopal Diocese of Alabama said Losch was removed from public ministry in August, according to a statement released by the office of Bishop Glenda Curry.
“Richard Losch is a retired priest who served part time at St. James in Livingston, Alabama,” the Diocese of Alabama said in its statement. “In August 2023 the Bishop fully restricted his ministry as a priest.”
Losch was rector of St. James in Livingston and priest-in-charge at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Gainesville, Ala., from 1994-2003.
He was priest-in-charge at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Greensboro from 2005-08. In 2014, he returned as acting priest in charge at St. James.
He also worked as a math instructor and then assistant professor of statistics at the University of West Alabama in Livingston from 1994-2006.
Losch was also assistant Scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 9, in Livingston, from 1994 to 2011.
The Boy Scouts of America released a statement regarding Losch.
“Father Richard Losch’s registration in Scouting ended in 2014,” it said. “In 2020, a proof of claim was filed alleging sexual abuse of a Scout by Father Losch. The BSA added him to its Volunteer Screening Database, precluding him from future registration in Scouting.”
During the time of the alleged incident in 1976, Losch was assistant headmaster and science and math teacher at Tower School in Marblehead, Massachusetts, from 1969-1981.
He was also assistant to the rector at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Marblehead from 1969-86.
“To my knowledge, we have had nobody else come forward, and I wouldn’t state there is a concern that there are other victims,” Marblehead Police Chief Dennis King told the Current.
“I would encourage any victim of sexual abuse to come forward and would not rule out there being other victims based on the type of crime that allegedly was committed.”
Losch is the second known priest at St. Michael’s accused of sexually assaulting a young boy.
In 2014, Franklin Huntress pleaded guilty to assaulting a 14-year-old boy in New Hampshire in the 1980s. Huntress was also arrested in London in 1994 and charged with sexual abuse of a child.
Huntress retired as a priest in 1995, but served until 2001 at St. Michael’s, according to a report in Marblehead Patch.
Before moving to Marblehead, Losch was math instructor at Cape Fear Academy in Wilmington, N.C., from 1989-93; math and computer education coordinator at Hale High School and St. Timothy’s School in Raleigh, N.C., principal at St. Timothy’s School in Raleigh from 1986-88; math and computer science instructor at Danvers High School in Danver, Massachusetts from 1981-85; English and humanities master and chaplain at Watkinson School in Hartford, Connecticut; rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Sandy Hook, Connecticut from 1961-66; and curate of Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington, Connecticut from 1959-61.
After moving to Alabama in 1994, Losch was also active in Masonic lodges, as grand chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Alabama, Free and Accepted Masons; and grand chaplain of the Grand Council of Alabama, Royal and Select Masters and York Rite Masons of Alabama; and grand prelate for the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar, York Rite Masons of Alabama.
Losch was born in Boston on Dec. 26, 1933. He graduated from Yale University in 1956 and the Yale Divinity School in 1959 and earned a master’s degree in education from North Carolina State University in 1990.
He was ordained in the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut as a deacon in 1959 and as a priest in 1960.