CBC News
March 29, 2011
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2011/03/28/nunavut-dejaeger-charges.html
More charges have been laid against Eric Dejaeger, a Roman Catholic priest accused of sex crimes against children in Nunavut in the late-1970s and 1980s.
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| Eric Dejaeger, right, is escorted by an RCMP officer out of the Iqaluit courthouse on Jan. 20, shortly after he was brought back to Canada from Belgium. (CBC) |
Three more individuals from Igloolik, Nunavut, came forward in the past month with new accusations against Dejaeger, who had served as a missionary in the eastern Arctic community between 1978 and 1982, according to court documents obtained by CBC News.
Dejaeger, now 63, faces a total of 20 criminal charges, which include indecent assault and buggery, from multiple complainants. He initially faced six charges when he was brought back to Nunavut in January.
A male complainant accuses Dejaeger of using violence to force him not to report any suspicious activity, according to court documents.
Dejaeger fled to Belgium, his country of birth, after he served a jail term in Canada for sex crimes against children in Baker Lake, another Nunavut community. He left Canada around the time that the Igloolik charges were first filed in 1995.
Dejaeger lived freely in Belgium for almost 16 years until January, when Belgian immigration officials declared that he had overstayed his legal residency in that country.
According to government officials there, the priest gave up his Belgian citizenship when he became a Canadian citizen in 1977.
Since he was brought back to Canada, Dejaeger has been kept in custody at the Baffin Correctional Centre in Iqaluit. He is due back in court on April 5.
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