By Kris McDavid
Times & Transcript
October 7, 2009
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/816209
ROGERSVILLE - Mayor Bertrand LeBlanc and many of those who reside in the sleepy Northumberland County village are breathing a sigh of relief.
After it was reported on Tuesday that former Nova Scotia bishop Raymond Lahey didn't arrive at the Cistercian Trappist Monastery of Our Lady of the Calvary just outside the village limits as part of the terms of his release on child pornography charges, police in Ottawa confirm they have located him in the nation's capital.
And that is where Lahey will remain until his next scheduled court appearance on Nov. 4, according to Ottawa Police Service spokesman Const. Alain Boucher.
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| Catholic Bishop Raymond Lahey Photo by Canadian Press |
"He had his address changed to a residence here in the Ottawa region," Boucher said. "The investigator has been notified, which is what the court order states."
Lahey turned himself in to Ottawa police last Thursday after a nation-wide warrant was issued for his arrest.
The former bishop for the Diocese of Antigonish has been charged with possession and importation of child pornography after his laptop was seized by border agents at the Ottawa International Airport in September.
After being released on $9,000 bail last week, Lahey was, by all accounts, due to reside at the monastery as of Friday and report to the Rogersville detachment on a twice-weekly basis as part of the court order.
The monastery's abbot, Father Bede Stockill, said Monday that Lahey was at the sanctuary on Sep. 29, prior to the charges being laid, and that he hadn't seen or heard from him since.
This seemed to baffle Ottawa police even as of early yesterday morning, with Boucher saying that investigators didn't know where Lahey was and were working with the former bishop's legal team to determine whether he was in breach of the court order.
At some point over the past few days, Boucher said Lahey must have appeared before a judge to have the conditions of his release changed.
Calls made to Lahey's defence attorney, John Edelson, as well as Crown prosecutor John Al-Haddad yesterday were not returned.
Either way, LeBlanc said he's just glad that a man facing such serious allegations won't be residing near his village of about 1,100 people.
"This will be positively received for sure, and I'm just glad that he decided to go somewhere else," he said.
"That's really, really good news."
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