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	Ex-Cop Dunlop Says He Doesn't Have the Heart to Face Grilling at Sex Abuse Inquiry Canadian Press February 21, 2008 http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iNmzgvTAn2GRPu7agWe7hZ-gfDUQ TORONTO - After steadfastly condemning a public inquiry largely of his own making, Perry Dunlop presented himself Wednesday as a proud but emotionally fragile man without the heart to face a roomful of lawyers probing allegations of systemic sexual abuse in eastern Ontario. It was 1993 when Dunlop, a former police officer, first made his explosive allegations of a pedophile ring operating in the city of Cornwall, Ont., south of Ottawa. Police investigations have since failed to uncover any evidence to support his claims. Dunlop, now convicted of contempt of court, faces the prospect of six months in jail for his steadfast refusal to testify at a public inquiry now probing how authorities in the community responded to the allegations he first made some 15 years ago. He insisted Wednesday he's not about to change his mind. "I will never walk into that public inquiry," Dunlop told a courtroom packed with some two dozen supporters, who stood and cheered him when he was ushered in by a trio of police officers, handcuffs on his wrists. "I felt from day one they were out to get Perry Dunlop," he said, having chosen to represent himself in court rather than speak through a lawyer. "They were out to crucify Perry Dunlop." His off-hours investigation in 1993 of an alleged pedophile ring - clergy, politicians and business leaders were accused of bizarre sexual rituals with young boys - prompted a provincial police probe dubbed Project Truth. The investigation resulted in just one conviction. On Wednesday, the two Divisional Court judges hearing the contempt case reserved their decision on Dunlop's sentence until March 5, and ordered him to remain in custody until then. They must also decide if Dunlop's refusal to obey a further court order to testify before the commission constitutes criminal contempt. In a 40-minute submission to the court, Dunlop spoke of 15 years of harassment and death threats against his family after the sex abuse allegations were made public. The inquiry, according to Dunlop and his wife Helen, represents the latest in a long history of cover-ups meant to shield powerful and well-heeled pedophiles in Cornwall from prosecution. "It seemed everywhere Perry Dunlop turned for help there was another pedophile," said Dunlop, who throughout his statement referred to himself in the third person. "The ultimate goal is to put Perry Dunlop in jail." Testifying before the inquiry would set up a situation where it's "one versus 70 (lawyers), and they're all out to get me," said Dunlop, who was arrested Sunday at his home in Duncan, B.C., and flown to Toronto on a Canada-wide warrant. Justice Lee Ferrier told Dunlop he appreciates that the 46-year-old father of three doesn't want to be "pummelled by lawyers in the inquiry," but asked him to consider that "somewhere, some child may benefit" from his testimony. "Second, does it not occur to you by giving your testimony, however rough an experience that might be, you would put this behind you?" "I just don't have the heart to go in there and face the barrage of the inquiry," he replied. Outside court, Helen Dunlop said she fears for her husband's mental health if he testifies. "Only Perry and I know the misery and the grief and the anguish and the depression that comes with being battered so often, over 15 years," she said, noting her husband has been on medication since 1993 to "handle the stress." She said she would expect her husband's testimony to last at least 20 days. "I personally will not allow Perry to go back in there. I don't know what will be left of him if he does," she said. "I ask anyone who could withstand that barrage without having a mental breakdown, and maybe that's what they want." One of the probe's watershed moments came last summer during the testimony of Ron Leroux, who had told Dunlop he witnessed a clan of pedophiles who wore robes, burned candles and sexually abused young boys during weekend meetings in the 1950s and early 1960s. In June, Leroux told the inquiry that he fabricated the story. Helen Dunlop said she's been told Leroux was pressured into changing his story. She listed the Roman Catholic church, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Cornwall police and the Ministry of the Attorney General as complicit in a cover-up of "high-profile pedophiles in positions of power with money, clout and connections." "The fix is in," she said. While Dunlop was given the option of testifying when the inquiry resumes Monday, he was ordered to remain in custody regardless until March 5. Commission lawyers and the Crown have asked the court to consider "vacating" Dunlop's sentence and setting him free should he change his mind and decide to testify.
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