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	Convicted Priest to Be Sentenced Nov. 9 By Bob Vaillancourt The Sudbury Star August 5, 2009 http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1686302 Roman Catholic priest Bernard Cloutier, convicted last month of sexually molesting young men a quarter century ago at various church parishes in the Sudbury area, will be sentenced in a Sudbury courtroom Nov. 9. A date for the sentencing of the 68-year-old priest was set Tuesday. Cloutier was originally charged with 16 charges of sex-related offences involving five young men. Following a lengthy trial, he was found guilty of 11 of the charges involving four of the five males. Superior Court Justice Paul Kane convicted Cloutier of five counts of gross indecency, four of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault on four male teens. The charges were laid in February of last year following allegations by five males, now adults, about incidents that took place from 1970 to 1983, when they were aged 12-17. In a ruling that took five hours to read, the judge said he found the actions of the priest, who was in his 30s at the time, constituted "a marked departure from the decent conduct expected of the average Canadian in the circumstances," given "the nature of the act alleged and the position of trust and responsibility which Father Cloutier held as a religious leader." At one point in his 87-page decision, Kane said he noted the priest's assaults on one of the males caused the victim to doubt his own sexuality, "at an age when similar youth are normally permitted to develop such identity among their peers." During the trial, one of the victims testified he was subjected to several incidents over several years, both in Espanola and later at the family's next home in Massey. Two others testified Cloutier assaulted them at a "pop and chip" party he hosted for them at the parish rectory on a Friday night in the fall of 1982. The two were given alcohol by Cloutier, they said. One of the two was 12 at the time. Another man testified Cloutier had fondled him repeatedly while the priest was stationed at St. Louis de France parish in Espanola in the mid- 1970s. The man was 15 at the time. Another, a former altar boy, told the trial he woke up in bed one day with the priest lying on top of him. The man said that as a boy, he and a friend would often visit Cloutier in the church rectory to listen to music on the priest's stereo system. Cloutier did not testify at the trial.
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