By Brian Medel
The Chronicle-Herald
January 27, 2011
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1224339.html
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| The former Notre Dame de Fatima church in Yarmouth, where Albert LeBlanc once served as a priest. The building is no longer used by the Catholic Diocese of Yarmouth. |
YARMOUTH — A former Roman Catholic priest who became a probation officer told one of his young alleged victims to drive a car around Yarmouth County while the accused performed oral sex on him, court documents reveal.
Albert LeBlanc, who will turn 82 a week before he appears in Yarmouth provincial court on March 15, is charged with 29 counts of gross indecency and 11 of indecent assault in various Yarmouth County locations over a 15-year span beginning in 1970.
The three alleged victims were boys between the ages of seven and 11, an RCMP source said this week.
The Chronicle Herald obtained court documents describing some of the crimes. There is a court-imposed publication ban on information that would identify any of the complainants.
Yarmouth RCMP arrested LeBlanc on Jan. 6 in Bouctouche, N.B., where court records say he has a home on Richard Avenue. He remains free in New Brunswick after promising to appear in court in Yarmouth.
He has been ordered to have no contact with children under 16 or with the three complainants.
Various allegations in the court documents involve oral sex or fondling.
LeBlanc was ordained in Bouctouche in 1955 and served as a priest in Digby, in Melbourne, Yarmouth County, and in two Yarmouth churches, St. Ambrose Cathedral and Notre Dame de Fatima, said Marilyn Sweet of the Archdiocese of Halifax.
LeBlanc left the priesthood in 1975 and became a probation officer shortly after that, Sweet said. She said he was not asked to leave the priesthood.
During his time as a priest, LeBlanc organized trips for altar boys to attend sporting events in Boston, published reports say.
The RCMP say the original complaint against LeBlanc was made last April.
Contact: bmedel@herald.ca
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