By Stephen Maher
The Chronicle-Herald
October 2, 2009
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1145491.html
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| Bishop Raymond Lahey arrives at a police station in Ottawa on Thursday |
Diocese won’t say who is paying for bishop's $800-an-hour Ottawa lawyer
OTTAWA — A grim-faced Bishop Raymond Lahey stepped out of a black SUV on Thursday afternoon to surrender to Ottawa police on child pornography charges.
More than a dozen cameramen, photographers and reporters formed a circle around the former bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish as he walked from the car to the police station entrance.
A TV reporter repeatedly shouted, "What do you have to say to your parishioners?"
Bishop Lahey, wearing a checked sweater and a blank expression, said nothing.
He was met at the doors by two police officers, who took him inside, where he was to be handcuffed, fingerprinted, photographed and questioned about the pornographic images allegedly found on his laptop last month.
Bishop Lahey’s lawyer, Michael Edelson, declined comment as he left the police station.
Mr. Edelson recently represented Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien when he faced influence-peddling charges. He previously represented Margaret Trudeau on drunk-driving charges. Both defences were successful. Ottawa court watchers speculate that Mr. Edelson’s services cost about $800 an hour.
Halifax Archbishop Anthony Mancini, who is temporarily in charge of the Antigonish diocese, would not say on Thursday who would be paying for Bishop Lahey’s defence.
Later in the afternoon, Bishop Lahey was released on bail with conditions that he avoid parks, computers and unsupervised contact with children. He must also check in weekly with a police detachment.
He is going to stay at a monastery in Rogersville, N.B. His next court date is Nov. 4 in Ottawa.
Archbishop Mancini was unable to say Wednesday where Bishop Lahey was travelling from when his laptop was searched at Ottawa International Airport on Sept. 15.
There has been speculation that Bishop Lahey was in Switzerland in late August and early September.
Const. Alain Boucher of the Ottawa Police Service said Thursday that Bishop Lahey wasn’t a target of a police investigation until Canada Border Service Agency officials performed a random check on his laptop.
When they found images "of concern," they detained the bishop and contacted Ottawa police, who determined on an initial examination that the images were not child pornography.
They seized the laptop and other media devices and released Bishop Lahey while they continued the investigation.
"The forensic examination of the computer and media later revealed child pornography," said a release from the police.
A Canada-wide warrant was issued for the bishop last Friday.
Bishop Lahey submitted his resignation to Pope Benedict the next day. The Pope accepted the resignation, which was announced on Sunday, although no reasons were given.
"I have already left the diocese to take some much-needed time for personal renewal," the bishop wrote in a farewell letter to parishioners.
"I simply ask for your prayers, as I assure you of my continued prayers for all of you."
At the time Bishop Lahey announced his resignation, some speculated it was in reaction to parishioners’ anger over the fact that the church was asking them to pay a $15-million settlement with people who were abused by priests as children. Bishop Lahey negotiated the settlement.
In August, he apologized to "every victim and to their families for the sexual abuse that was inflicted upon those who were instead entitled to the trust and protection of priests."
The news that Bishop Lahey faces child pornography charges has horrified and shocked parishioners.
Nobody was answering the phone in the diocese office in Antigonish on Thursday. Calls and emails to a spokeswoman in Halifax were not returned.
Ottawa police filed a formal request Tuesday for the RCMP’s help in Nova Scotia in investigating the case, Sgt. Brigdit Leger said Thursday.
That could lead to a search of Bishop Lahey’s Nova Scotia home and office.
"Based on the outcome of the Ottawa investigation, all leads will be followed, all avenues of investigation will be exhausted and wherever the investigation brings us, we go," she said.
Bishop Lahey, originally from St. John’s, N.L., was installed as the Bishop of Antigonish on June 12, 2003.
With Patricia Brooks Arenburg, staff reporter
Contact: smaher@herald.ca
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