Lahey Wanted on Child Pornography Charges
The Chronicle-Herald
September 30, 2009
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/9013423.html
An arrest warrant has been issued for a former Roman Catholic bishop from Nova Scotia charged with possession and importation of child pornography.
The Ottawa Police Service Internet child exploitation unit charged Raymond Lahey, 69, on Sept. 25, 10 days after he was pulled over at Macdonald-Cartier International Airport in Ottawa by Canada Border Services Agency officers.
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| Raymond Lahey, former bishop of the Diocese of Antigonish, has been charged with possession and importation of child pornography. The former bishop is pictured here after being installed at a ceremony in Antigonish in 2003. Photo by Peter Parsons |
Mr. Lahey, who recently helped broker a landmark $15-million settlement to a class-action sexual abuse lawsuit against the Diocese of Antigonish, was returning from the U.S. on Sept. 15 through the Ottawa airport when border officials pulled him aside for a secondary examination, according to a news release from Ottawa police.
Border services officers found images on his laptop computer "that were of concern", according to the release.
Officials seized his computer and other media devices. Mr. Lahey was released "pending further investigation", the release said.
Now, Ottawa police and border services officials are asking anyone with information about the investigation to call the Ottawa Police Service Internet Child Exploitation Unit at 1-613-236-1222, ext. 5640.
The bishop, named to the position in 2003, is a Newfoundlander who once served as a professor of theology at Memorial University in St. John's.
Mr. Lahey was credited with helping to broker the settlement to a lawsuit brought against the diocese by the brother of a man who had claimed he was sexually abused as a child.
Ronald Martin, whose brother wrote a suicide note in 2002 that led to charges of sex crimes against a priest from the diocese, filed a class-action lawsuit last year against the organization.
The settlement is aimed at compensating anyone who was allegedly and known to have been sexually assaulted by a priest of the Catholic Episcopal Corp. of Antigonish since Jan. 1, 1950. Last month, Mr. Lahey said the agreement was the first step in recognizing the alleged abuse of children as young as eight years old.
"I recognize that my resignation takes place at a time when the diocese is facing a variety of demanding challenges," he wrote in a letter dated Saturday and released on Sunday explaining his resignation.
"While I will no longer be with you on this journey, I am confident that your faith and compassion will continue to sustain you as they have always done . . . I have already left the diocese to take some much-needed time for personal renewal."
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