Thomas L Dupre has become the first bishop to be indicted on charges of molesting children since the clergy child abuse scandal hit the United States two years ago.

A grand jury in Massachusetts on Monday indicted the 70-year-old on charges of molesting two boys while serving as a parish priest in the 1970s.

He had resigned as the head of the Springfield diocese in Massachusetts in February, soon after Republican, a local newspaper, confronted him with allegations in this regard.

"Dupre was indicted on two counts of child rape, but he will not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations on the case has expired," Hampden County District Attorney William M Bennett said.

The statute of limitations on child rape in Massachusetts was six years at the time the crimes were allegedly committed, and it is now 15 years from the victim's 16th birthday or 15 years when the victim first reported the crime to law enforcement, whichever comes first.

Peter Pollord, the western Massachusetts coordinator for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said: "What has happened is a disgrace. All I am hoping now is that someone else will come forward, perhaps someone whose abuse occurred within the statute."