BishopAccountability.org
	Rumours of Pedophile Ring Were Fabrications, Inquiry Told By Allison Jones North Bay Nugget February 27, 2009 http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1454545 Murky allegations that a pedophile clan operated with impunity in eastern Ontario were cast as fabrications spread by a misguided police officer and embraced by a panic-stricken community during four days of final submissions at the Cornwall inquiry. Public agencies ill-equipped to handle sex abuse allegations, the equation of homosexuality with pedophilia and the presumption of guilt of accused abusers were all cited as factors in how rumours of the sex ring took root. While the mandate of the inquiry, which has cost $40 million to date, was to examine institutional response to decades-old allegations of abuse, the majority of the submissions, which began Monday, focused on discrediting the clan theory. Many suggested the blame for the sensational story, which provincial police found no evidence of in an earlier probe, could be placed on former Cornwall police officer Perry Dunlop. Thursday, Commissioner G. Normand Glaude was urged to conclude in his report, due July 31, that the allegations were a paranoid myth. There is no doubt that this commission was formed largely in response to the persistence of this 'story,'" David Sherriff-Scott, lawyer for the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, submitted to the inquiry. 'The story is false' The commission, therefore, should unequivocally and unreservedly put the story to rest and declare that, after more than three years of probing, the story is false." Vulnerable witnesses were easily manipulated by Dunlop into concocting an explosive tale of ritual sexual abuse. And supporters of Dunlop, who was seen as a local hero for his crusade against pedophiles, became a group of media-savvy conspiracy theorists" who exacted maximum damage on those targeted," the inquiry heard. It is important for you to set out exactly how these allegations were constructed and by whom," Cornwall Police Service lawyer John Callaghan told Glaude. It's important because the conspiracy theorists will never die. Long after you leave town, the bloggers, the gossip hounds, will continue to gather behind some grassy knoll in Cornwall and tell of a conspiracy." Closing submissions from the diocese and Cornwall police took the position that two witnesses, one known as C8, the other a man named Ron Leroux, fabricated stories of a pedophile ring. It was (then) propagated by the reckless incompetence and lack of judgment of Perry Dunlop, who could not discern fact from fiction," Sherriff-Scott told the inquiry. It began in 1992, Sherriff-Scott said, when a 35-year-old former altar boy alleged he had been sexually abused by a priest and a probation officer. The man reached a settlement with the diocese for $32,000 and didn't pursue charges against either man. Dunlop leaked the allegations to the local Children's Aid Society and the information eventually appeared in the media. The man launched a complaint against Dunlop. Mr. Dunlop became convinced that he was being scapegoated, bullied, harassed and isolated," which caused him to mistrust all public institutions, Sherriff-Scott said.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.