WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) – A lawyer for the man accused in the jailhouse slaying of pedophile priest John Geoghan said Monday that prison officials retaliated against his client by denying him access to his attorney.

But an official at the maximum-security prison said Joseph Druce wasn’t allowed a private visit with his lawyer because that’s the prison’s policy.

Druce’s attorney, John LaChance, wants Worcester Superior Court Judge Timothy Hillman to dismiss the murder charge against his client, who is already serving a life sentence for murdering another man.

“There was retribution for the problems he caused the Department of Correction by his alleged actions of going into John Geoghan’s cell and killing him,” LaChance said during the first day of what’s expected to be a three-day hearing on the motion to dismiss the murder charge.

Geoghan was a key figure in the clergy sex abuse scandal that erupted in the Boston Archdiocese in early 2002. The 68-year-old defrocked priest was serving a 10-year sentence for molesting a 10-year-old boy.

Thomas Dickhaut, deputy superintendent of operations at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, testified that no undue action was taken against Druce.

Dickhaut acknowledged that morale was low among officials at the prison after Geoghan’s death because of questions raised by the news media and politicians over security procedures at the prison. But the decision not to let Druce meet privately with LaChance was a matter of policy, not punishment, he said.

Druce, who is expected to testify on Tuesday, says he’s been harassed by prison officials who encouraged him to plead guilty to killing Geoghan so he would be transferred out of Souza-Baranowski.

But Dickhaut said the only reason ever discussed for possibly transferring Druce was because “he wears on us.”

“He was difficult,” Dickhaut said.

Capt. William Grossi, a supervisor at MCI-Cedar Junction where Druce was transferred in October 2003, said he never pressured Druce to admit killing Geoghan.

“Any time Mr. Druce brought up his case, I told him I didn’t want to talk about his case,” Grossi said.

Worcester District Attorney John Conte said the attempt to dismiss the charge amounted to grandstanding.

“Joseph Druce has killed two individuals,” Conte said. “What’s going on in the courtroom is just a lot of false publicity. All we want is to get Joseph Druce to trial as soon as possible.”

The trial is tentatively set to begin this fall.

Druce is already serving a life sentence for the 1988 killing of a man he thought was gay.

Investigators say he jammed shut the door of Geoghan’s cell so no one could enter, then beat and strangled him.

Druce allegedly told investigators afterward that he killed Geoghan “to save the children,” but now claims that statement was coerced from him by state police in violation of his constitutional rights.