[Please note: This page is under construction. As information is added back to the site the names below will all be linked to pages with further information on each individual named.]
One of the many errors, misrepresentations or implications appearing in news reports across the country is that 15 men were charged in the Project Truth probe and only one was convicted. This implies that fourteen were acquitted. Wrong. It also implies that the Project Truth probe is the sum total of the Cornwall sex abuse scandal. Not so.
There are at least 17 known sexual predators who are connected directly or indirectly to the Cornwall sex abuse scandal and cover-up.
Below is a list of the outcome of those charged through the Project Truth probe. That list is followed by other relevant non-Project-Truth convictions. With one exception those listed are those whom I understand to be related in some fashion to the allegations of sexual abuse, a paedophile ring and a cover-up which arose after Perry Dunlop’s actions shed light on the now infamous $32,000 “Church” pay-off of an “ alleged” victim of clerical sexual abuse.
All the following charges relate to sexual abuse of young boys. In a couple of cases the molester also abused girls. The list does not include those charged whose charges were withdrawn, or those accused who were never charged.
A. Project Truth
Here is the break down of the fifteen charged under the Project Truth probe:
One (1) guilty plea. One (1) acquittal in Cornwall but guilty in Quebec. Two (2) stays. Three (3) suicides. Three (3) deaths of natural causes. Two (2) trials cancelled due to the defendant’s health. Three (3) acquittals.
Now in more detail with names and some information. More info available by clicking on the links:
(1) Guilty plea 1 (one) – entered a plea of guilty
(i) Jean Luc Leblanc – former employee of Transport Canada turned school bus driver. Leblanc had been convicted before.)
(2) Acquitted in Cornwall; Guilty in Quebec – Same victim
(i) Father Paul Lapierre: At the Cornwall public inquiry former Bishop Eugene Larocque testified that Lapierre had admitted to him that he, Lapierre, had sexually abused Claude Marleau. Larocque remained silent about the admission until now – even during Lapierre’s Project Truth trial in Cornwall and after Lapierre’s acquitted in Cornwall.
(3) Stayed
2 (two) – stayed – Charter right to a speedy trial said to have been violated
(i) Jacques Leduc : Roman Catholic, lawyer, Church canon lawyer. One of three lawyers involved in negotiating the infamous $32,000 pay-off.
(ii) Father Charles MacDonald: former teacher turned priest. The “alleged” clerical paedophile at the heart of the $32,000 pay-off.
(4) Suicides
3 (three) – committed suicide before standing trial
(i) Richard Hickerson,: ex-priest. Was in trouble as a priest in the Diocese of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He admiited that he had sexually abused while he was a priest.
(ii) Nelson Barque,: ex-seminarian turned probation officer
(iii) Brian Dufour (scroll): former employee at Laurencrest home for troubled youth.
(5) Dead of natural causes
3 (three) – died, presumably of natural causes, before standing trial
(i) Dr. Peachey: Roman Catholic, family physician, former coroner, team doctor for the Cornwall Royals hockey team, and acting physician for the Cornwall Police
(ii) Malcolm MacDonald: Roman Catholic, lawyer, former Crown attorney, member of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Entered guilty plea to obstruction of justice and got an absolute discharge for inserting an illegal clause in the infamous 1993 $32,000 pay-off of David Silmser.
(iii) Roch Landry: former butcher
(6) Trial cancelled
Two (2) trials cancelled – apparently due to health of the defendant “alleged” paedophile
(i) Bernard Sauve: entrepreneur. Appeared at trial with medical doctor. Trial apparently cancelled for his personal health reasons and word that the two “alleged” victims were presumably in no shape to go to trial .
(ii) Brother George Edmond (Lionel Carrierre): former teacher in Alexandria. Deemed unfit to stand trial.
(7) Acquitted
Three (3) acquittals, all with rather bizarre rationale for the acquittal.
(i) Harvey Latour: owner of popular Cornwall diner. (Judge said ‘not guilty enough’ despite being “pretty sure” Latour molested the plaintiff)
(ii) George Sandy Lawrence: Organist and owner of music store. (Judge concluded there was sexual activity but it was consensual)
(iii) Father Kenneth Martin: diocesan priest with the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall. Left diocese for the Archdiocese of Montreal in early 70s. Has retained his incardination in Alexandria-Cornwall throughout those years. (Verdict a shocker to those who sat through the trial)
B. Non Project Truth but related
There were sex abuse charges and convictions for a number of men who had direct or indirect connections to some of the above and to members of the “alleged” paedophile ring. These men were not investigated and charged under the Project Truth probe. They were however charged and convicted either during or after the probe:
(1) Milton MacDonald: father of Cornwall Crown attorney Murray MacDonald.
(2) Earl Landry Jr.: son of former Cornwall police chief Earl Landry.
(3) Marcel Lalonde: Roman Catholic school teacher.
(4) Robert Sabourin: Roman Catholic school teacher. Good friend of former Bishop of the diocese, Adolphe Proulx. Sabourin was also an unofficial photographer for the diocese.
(5) James Lewis: victim of Richard Hickerson.
(6) Bernie Campbell: Convicted mid 80s. Friend or at least acquaintance of Earl Landry Jr.. Campbell worked or volunteered at King George Park at the same time L:andry Jr. was there. Like Landry he coached children’s hockey.
(7) Gary Seguin: numerous victims. Convicted mid 80s. Molested a victim with the moniker C-51 who was also molested by Earl Landry Jr.
(8) Father Lucien Lussier: Priest with the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall. Recently charged. [Charges laid in 2007. Charges stayed 17 June 2011, this after the scheduled March trial was cancelled and hearing was held to determine Lussier’s fitness to stand trial. ]
C. Charged and convicted. Relationship to Project Truth suspects unknown at this time
(1) Thomas Cronin: Speech therapist at Cornwall General Hospital. Convicted in 2002 for sexual abuse of young boys. (I will eventually post media coverage of Cronin’s trial)
D. Known sexual predators who eluded conviction
(1) Nelson Barque: ex seminarian turned probation officer already referenced in “A”above. Barque was charged under Project Truth probe but committed suicide before standing trial. Barque had previously been ‘caught.’ He was allowed to resign his position as probation officer after reports and knowledge that he had been sexually assaulting a probationer. No charges were laid.
(2) Martial “Killer” Gagnon (scroll): Back in the late 60s Gagnon was charged and pled guilty. Gagnon, aformer referee with the Junior Hockey League, was a good friend of Fathers Paul Lapierre and Edouard Berube, the latter a Viatorian priest at the Classical College.
Gagnon was put on probation on condition he stay away from Cornwall. His whereabouts are unknown.
D. Charged and Convicted before Project Truth probe
One (1) clerical molester was the charged and convicted before the Project Truth probe was launched
(1) Father Gilles Deslaurier (Charged and convicted before the lid started to blow)
E. Charged and convicted elsewhere – other allegations in Cornwall.
Two clerical molesters were convicted elsewhere. Both had molested while they served in the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall.
(1) Father Carl Stone: Stone was an American priest known to abuse young boys who was taken into the diocese in the late 50s to ealry 60s. In 1963 He got into trouble in Cornwall “when the Cornwall Police threatened to intervene after his misdemeanour” and disappeared.
In 1981 Stone was charged with and pled guilty to charges of sodomizing two teenage brothers in Albany N.Y. Despite Stone’s background Bishop Eugene Larocque took him in to the diocese. Larocque pulled political strings, and, with the aid of Federal Liberal cabinet ministers Ed Lumley and Lloyd Axworthy Stone was allowed to remain in Canada and functrion as a priest on a Minister’s permit.
It is known that contrary to stipulations for his Minister’s Permit he had young boys in his room during the 80s. Stone was quietly hustled out of the diocese.
Fern Vivarais, a victim of Stone’s, came forward within the last few years and eventually testified at the Cornwall Public Inquiry.
(2) Father Luc Meunier : Meunier molested his way across Canada and the United States. He died in a U.S. prison awaiting extradition to Canada to face multiple sex abuse allegations.Meunier spent about a year in Cornwall. One victim from Meunier’s time in Cornwall, Fern Vivarais’ brother, has come forward.
F. No known allegations in Cornwall. Charged and convicted elsewhere
(1) Father Paul Desilets (Viatorian priest who once taught at the now defunct Cornwall Classical College – convicted in the States. There are no known allegations against Desilets stemming from his time at the Cornwall Classical College.
Those are the ones which come to mind at this time. The Cornwall sex abuse scandal can not be misrepresented as 15 charged and only one found guilty. That is not the truth. It seriously misrepresents the facts.
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Some known molesters connected to the Cornwall sex abuse scandal
In total there are at least 16 known child molesters/sexual predators connected directly or indirectly to the Cornwall sex abuse scandal and cover-up. These are men who, according to documented evidence, were known to authorities as abusers and were not charged, or were charged and entered a guilty plea, or were charged and convicted in a court of law.
(1) Father Paul Lapierre
(2) Richard Hickerson
(3) Milton MacDonald.
(4) Earl Landry Jr.
(5) Marcel Lalonde
(6) Robert Sabourin
(7) James Lewis
(8) Father Lucien Lussier:
(9) Thomas Cronin
(10) Neslon Barque
(11) Martial “Killer” Gagnon
(12) Father Gilles Deslaurier
(13) Father Carl Stone
(14) Father Luc Meunier
(15) Father Paul Desilets
(16) Bernie Campbell
(17) Gary Seguin
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One final addition to the above “statistics”: Ken Seguin, , a former seminarian turned probation officer and close friend of Father Charles MacDonald, committed suicide in 1993 before charges could be laid.
There have been four confirmed suicides. (1) Ken Seguin, (2) Brian Dufour, (3) Richard Hickerson and (4) Nelson Barque.
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There has been a multitude of out-of-court settlements between victims and various institutions, those include a settlement between Ontario Correctional Services and 13 victims and another between the Viatorians and four victims