WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) – A jury was seated Tuesday for the murder trial of an inmate in the jailhouse strangling of John Geoghan, the child-molesting priest at the center of the sex scandal in the Boston Archdiocese.

Ten men and six woman will hear the case against Joseph Druce, 40. Opening statements were set for Wednesday.

Druce allegedly beat and strangled Geoghan in 2003 after sneaking into his cell and jamming the door shut. Druce, who claims he was sexually abused as a child, bragged to investigators that he did it to “save the children.”

His attorney, John LaChance, has said he plans an insanity defense.

Druce is already serving a life sentence for murdering a man who allegedly made a sexual advance toward him while Druce was hitchhiking. He unsuccessfully used an insanity defense during that 1989 trial.

Geoghan was accused of molesting 150 boys over three decades. At the time of his death, he was serving a nine- to 10-year sentence for groping a 10-year-old boy.

Several potential jurors were dismissed after admitting they were devout Roman Catholics and would have trouble remaining impartial about the case.

One said he was molested by a priest when he was an altar boy in the late 1960s. Another man was dismissed after he told the judge he felt what Geoghan did to children was “so horrific that he probably didn’t even deserve to live.”

Geoghan’s killer “almost did the state a service,” the man said.

Another man said a member of his wife’s immediate family was abused by Geoghan.

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