One of the most notorious cases of clergy sexual abuse came to a close earlier this year when former priest and convicted pedophile James Porter died of cancer in the midst of a court battle to prevent his release from prison.

But the end of his life did not end the anguish for his many victims who were Catholic school children when Porter assaulted them in the 1960s.

`` He's dead but he's still alive in memories,'' said Peter Calderone of Attleboro, who was a student at St. Mary's School in North Attleboro when Porter, a parish priest, molested him and dozens of his classmates.

`` Not one day in my life goes by that I don't think of that guy,'' said Calderone, one of many victims who began telling their stories publicly in the early 1990s after one of them tracked down Porter in Minnesota, where he was living with his wife and four children.

He was brought to Massachusetts to face charges and later pleaded guilty to abusing 28 children, and was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. He was eligible for release in 2004 when Bristol County District Attorney Paul Walsh petitioned the court to have Porter kept behind bars indefinitely as a sexually dangerous person.

In court hearings, several victims gave graphic details of abuse, and prosecutors argued that Porter could abuse again if he was released. Porter's attorney maintained that his client had successfully completed treatment and was no longer a threat to children.

A trial was ordered, and more hearings were pending when Porter's illness worsened. He died in February at New England Medical Center in Boston after being transferred there from a Department of Corrections facility.

Calderone said he is glad that Porter was never released.

`` Our wish was that he would go to prison and never get out,'' he said. `` He never saw freedom again.''

After Porter's death, Boston attorney Roderick MacLeish, who represented more than 100 victims in lawsuits, said the case of the former priest came to symbolize the start of an era when people could speak publicly about clergy abuse.

It also forced changes in laws and in church policies, and brought many victims forward, said MacLeish, who referred to the former priest as `` a human wrecking ball'' who ruined many lives.

Some of his victims maintain that their public accusations may have emboldened victims of other priests to do the same.

That began happening in massive numbers in 2002, when the release of court files on Boston area priest John Geoghan sparked an avalanche of clergy sexual abuse cases throughout the Archdiocese of Boston and across the country.

`` We encouraged a whole lot of people to step forward,'' said Calderone, who notes that even now, the clergy sexual abuse crisis is far from over because new cases are still being revealed. `` Almost 15 years later, it is still a story, still an issue. It is still alive,'' he said.

This past year brought another local case into the limelight when Father Donald Bowen pleaded guilty to repeatedly assaulting a young Norton girl in the late 1960s and early 1970s while he was a priest at St. Mary's Parish in that town.

He received a sentence of only two years and will be eligible for release this summer, but his victim, Catherine Murphy of Norton, said later that although she would have wanted a tougher sentence, she was satisfied that Bowen finally admitted to his crimes against her.

Murphy said the public statements of the Porter victims in the early 1990s made her realize she was hardly alone in being victimized by an abusive priest, and that helped her pursue justice.

Calderone said back then he was getting 10 to 20 telephone calls a week from people all over the world who said they had been abused at some point in their lives, and he occasionally gets calls even today.

`` It's not going to go away,'' he said of the Porter legacy. `` This is never-ending.''