Canada - Father Eric Dejaeger for child sexual abuse, Igloolik, NU, 2011

I will be doing some research here on this "priest". I can't quite figure out the timeline but I will report back. Interesting that he was in Belgium. I wonder if another seemingly missing former priest from Belgium has taken up residency in Canada? You know, the one who was sent "abroad" for spiritual treatment and has disappeared.

http://www.thespec.com/news/canada/...-against-priest-in-nunavut-include-bestiality

New charges against priest in Nunavut include bestiality

"IQALUIT, NUNAVUT Charges against a priest already facing numerous sex abuse charges against Inuit children now have a count of bestiality added to the charges. Court documents say the charge, one of five new ones laid this week against Eric Dejaeger, allegedly involved a dog.

and

"Almost all the accounts are sex offences allegedly committed against boys and girls in the remote Nunavut community of Igloolik between 1979 and 1982.

Dejaeger, who was expelled from Belgium earlier this year on immigration violations, is being held in custody awaiting bail in Iqaluit. He received a five-year sentence in 1990 after pleading guilty to nine counts of sex crimes against boys and girls in Baker Lake in the 1980s...."


more at link (and comments.....It appalls me how the mere mention of bestiality causes so many people to instantly revert to 2nd grade humor. Wait, 2nd graders are smarter than that.)

How have we missed this guy? Lots of info on him:

http://www.whatsonningbo.com/news-1...jaeger-extradited-to-canada-from-belgium.html

Belgian child sex priest Eric Dejaeger extradited to Canada from Belgium
Updated: 21 Jan 2011

"A Roman Catholic priest has appeared in a Canadian court after being extradited from Belgium to face charges of molesting boys more than 30 years ago. The Reverend Eric Dejaeger, a Canadian citizen, had been wanted since 2002.

The 63-year-old was arrested in his native Belgium earlier this month on charges he overstayed his visa. He faces six charges related to alleged crimes against native children in the remote settlement of Igloolik, where he served as a missionary...."

and

"....He is charged with three counts of indecent assault on a male and three counts of serious sexual assault, in alleged incidents between 1978 and 1982. A bail hearing is to be held on Monday.

In 1990, Father Dejaeger was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to nine charges of sexually assaulting children between 1983 and 1987 in the remote community of Baker Lake, in what is now Nunavut territory. He was released after 18 months, then fled to Belgium after fresh allegations emerged...."


more at link (plus photo)


Excellent commentary:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/10/from_nunavut_to_lourdes.php

From Nunavut to Lourdes

"Eric Dejaeger is a Catholic priest and pedophile who benefited greatly from church policy: when it was learned that he was a child-raping monster, the Catholic Church did the upright, moral thing and kept him on as a priest, but simply shipped him off to the Canadian north where he'd only be raping the Inuit. When the law caught up with him even in that remote place, he fled…and guess where he found shelter and employment? Back in the arms of Mother Church, of course...."

more at link (plus a few other good links)

More background. Brace yourself for the judge's words:

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/98789_runaway_nunavut_priest_left_few_good_memories/

Runaway Nunavut priest left few good memories
“The people never had a chance to vent their anger at him”
September 23, 2010

".....On April 20, 1990, in sentencing Dejaeger to five years in prison for convictions on nine sex charges involving children, Justice Ted Richard of the Northwest Territories Supreme Court found that, in his opinion, Dejaeger, notwithstanding his activities with children, is not a pedophile.

“From the facts that were provided to the court today, in my view, this is simply a case of a lonely man who had normal sexual urges, which he repressed for many years because of his calling no doubt and who satisfied those sexual urges, not by approaching adults who were old enough or mature enough to say no to him, but by befriending or seducing young children who did not know enough, or were not courageous enough, to say no to him,” Richard said in his decision.

One of Dejaeger’s victims was a boy with whom Dejaeger maintained a sexual relationship [NOT A RELATIONSHIP!!!] for a period of between five and seven years.

“This sexual activity took place at the mission residence here in Baker Lake, and in other homes in Baker Lake where Father Dejaeger was housesitting from time to time, and also in a number of places in Europe when Father Dejaeger took a trip to Europe and took the young boy with him,” Richard noted...."

more at link (in depth article with a local view)



Another article:

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/n...ce-sex-charges/article1875639/?service=mobile

Priest returning to Inuit community to face sex charges

"For the tiny Northern community of Igloolik, it's been a very long wait for justice.
Disgraced Roman Catholic priest Erik Dejaeger is expected to arrive in Iqaluit on Thursday from Montreal to face six 30-year-old charges of sexual misconduct – another chapter in the church's agonizing saga of child abuse.
Canadian priest wanted on child-sex charges detained in Belgium
Father Dejaeger, 63, was flown back to Canada on Wednesday from Belgium, where he had been living illegally for 15 years.
In April, 1990, Father Dejaeger pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual and indecent assault in Baker Lake, NWT, (now part of Nunavut), and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Charges of buggery and sexual interference with Inuit children, laid in 1995 after his release, stem from his tenure as an Oblate priest in Igloolik, about 850 kilometres northwest of Iqaluit, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Father Dejaeger failed to appear at a June, 1995, court hearing, and fled to his native Belgium. There, despite an Interpol warrant for his arrest, he worked for the Catholic Church, living in a villa with a group of Oblates in Blanden, east of Brussels...."

and

"...Belgian journalist Douglas De Coninck published a series of articles about the abuse scandal in the Belgian Catholic Church. Citing the Interpol warrant of 1998, Mr. De Coninck claimed “the Flemish fathers deliberately hid their pedophile brother from Interpol and misled the inquiry headed by Godelieve Halsberghe. The Oblates first denied to know anything about the reasons of Father Erik's sudden return from Canada and later acknowledged that they had been informed in detail about the conviction and the reasons for the conviction....”

more at link


Note: I can't find an English language copy of the scathing articles written about the priest by Douglas De Coninck. They seem to only be available in Flemish. Can anyone find them?

I believe this is the English translation of the articles. This is an excellent resource, BTW. Lots of info on Dejaeger and other pedophile priests.

http://www.theinquiry.ca/wordpress/charged/dejaeger-2/father-eric/

(article by Matthias Declercq and Douglas De Coninck, published in De Morgen, Belgian newspaper, on May 8th 2010).


Father Eric

".....A quote from the letter: “He’s being punished by the prohibition to perform pastoral tasks. As a priest he is being forced to being idle in the best years of his life (&#8230. Furthermore he is literally a broken man. He is being treated for two broken vertebra. The first treatment did not help, on the contrary. Even taking a pen to write may cause unbearable pains (&#8230 We have accepted him amongst ourselves. He is and stays Oblate and person, with a right to respect, despite his mistakes.”

At the end of his letter the Provincial adds this: “… you do not have the right to make this affair public, because it would harm the church and cause injustice to the Oblates”.....

more at link

seems like that judge must be a pedophile himself

has to be - what [unusual person] in their right mind would not only say something like that but put it in a judgement?!

I'm a bit stunned TBH

Oh, the power of two angry women with computers. Some updates:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/women-bring-convicted-pedophile-priest-back-canada-100006278.html

Women link up on the web to bring convicted pedophile priest back to Canada

He must have thought he was through with Canadian prisons. Father Eric Dejaeger probably figured as recently as last spring that he'd never have to answer to accusations he'd betrayed the faith and innocence of Inuit children from the tiny Nunavut community of Igloolik. And he almost never did.

The fact he now sits in an Arctic jail, awaiting trial on a score of sex charges, has as much to do with luck, dogged journalism, modern communications and two determined women on opposite sides of the Atlantic as it does with international law enforcement.
One of his pursuers, a retired nurse and homemaker from Ottawa, was motivated by sex scandals she saw tearing her church apart. The other, a Belgian, was outraged that an accused pedophile could live and work in her country unchallenged over allegations he faced thousands of kilometres away in Canada...."

More at link (excellent overview)


And:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/preliminary-hearing-set-priest-nunavut-203259339.html

Preliminary hearing set for priest in Nunavut

"A preliminary hearing will take place next year for Eric Dejaeger, a former Roman Catholic priest accused of sex crimes against children in Nunavut in the late-1970s and 1980s. Three weeks have been set aside for the preliminary hearing, which will start on Feb. 20, 2012, the Nunavut Court of Justice announced Monday in Iqaluit.

Dejaeger, now 64, faces more than 30 criminal charges — including indecent assault and buggery — from multiple complainants who claim he abused them when they were children in Igloolik, Nunavut...."

More at link


DeJaeger really hoped his past would stay in the past. However, children have this tendency to NEVER forget.

Sitting on my hands......

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/ex-priest-faces-3-sex-charges-nunavut-182156546.html

Former Nunavut priest faces 3 new sex charges
August 15, 2011

"A Roman Catholic priest accused of decades-old sex crimes against children in Nunavut now faces more than 30 criminal charges, after three new charges were filed in court. Three new counts of indecent assault against Eric Dejaeger, 64, were announced in the Nunavut Court of Justice on Monday...."

more at link