National Post
October 9, 2009
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2086159
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| Bruno Schlumberger/Canwest News Service |
OTTAWA -- The release conditions for a former Nova Scotia Bishop accused of possessing and importing child pornography have been changed to allow him to live in Ottawa.
The lawyer for Bishop Raymond Lahey, handed over the 69-year-old's passport to Ottawa police Det. Dan Melchiorre during a brief court appearance Friday.
Bishop Lahey will now be required to live at the Ottawa Catholic archdiocese's priests' residence in central Ottawa. He will also be required to check in with Ottawa police every second Saturday starting on Oct. 17.
Bishop Lahey was charged on Sept. 25 with possessing and importing child pornography.
Ten days earlier he stepped off a flight from England at the Ottawa International Airport, where a customs agent flagged him for secondary inspection after examining his passport and noticing the bishop had "extensive travel to source countries for child pornography," according to a court document made public this week.
The document -- an information to obtain a search warrant -- said Bishop Lahey had visited Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Spain and Germany since 2005. During the secondary inspection, another agent with Canada Border Services Agency found three images of boys in various sexual acts on his laptop computer.
The agent determined it was child pornography and arrested him for smuggling the material into Canada, according to the document, which was used by Ottawa police to seize Bishop Lahey's laptop and several electronic devices, which were in the possession of customs authorities.
On Sept. 26 he resigned as the bishop of Antigonish, N.S., where he just finished overseeing a historic, $15-million, out-of-court settlement with people who were sexually abused as children by a former priest at the diocese.
His next court date is Nov. 4.
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