By Andrew Seymour
Ottawa Citizen
April 19, 2011
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ottawa+priest+sentenced+house+arrest+indecent+assaults+brothers+years/4640826/story.html
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| Former priest William Allen, also a former St. Pius X Catholic High School teacher, leaves the Elgin Street courthouse on Tuesday. |
A sexual abuse victim told his priest and former teacher to “rot in hell” Tuesday after the now elderly man was found guilty of indecently assaulting him and his teenage brothers.
“Perhaps one day, your Lord will forgive you,” the emotional victim told 81-year-old retired priest William Joseph Allen. “I haven’t.”
The victim was 16 years old in 1974 when Allen, a teacher at St. Pius X High School, first began pinning him down in a wrestling move before rhythmically thrusting his pelvis into the boy’s leg.
One of the assaults occurred in the priest’s room at the high school, where Allen slipped out of his priest clothes and into a white T-shirt and trousers to assault him.
The victim’s older brother was assaulted every Wednesday after choir practice in the rectory of St. Monica’s church for five years beginning in 1970.
A third brother was also offered meals in exchange for about a dozen of Allen’s wrestling matches in the church rectory, although no charges were laid in relation to those offences.
“I was taught by the clergy about the concepts of ‘good’ and ‘evil’, ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’ I was taught, and I believed, that priests were good,” said the victim, who broke down sobbing before beginning to read his statement.
“When you wilfully violated that trust, Mr. Allen, you displayed such a shameless hypocrisy that you — a Catholic priest — became a grotesque, disgusting example of evil,” he said.
“You robbed me of my faith, you robbed me of my self-esteem and you robbed me of my dignity,” said the victim, describing the feelings of rage, guilt and self-loathing that led him to entertain thoughts of suicide.
“I am gratified to know that you will go to your grave with the knowledge of your wrongs, and that at some time, either in this world or the next, you will confront your maker and answer for your appalling depravity.”
Allen, who has thinning white hair and sat in a wheelchair clutching a cane, was silent and appeared unmoved as his victim spoke.
The frail and ailing Allen, who did not contest the allegations, received a nine-month conditional sentence for the crimes, including 4? months of house arrest.
It was a sentence Ontario Court Justice Hugh Fraser said he was receiving only because of his advanced age.
Fraser, who described the victim’s impact statement as one of the most powerful and eloquent he had heard in many years, declared Allen a sex offender, ordered him to provide a DNA sample and placed him on probation for a year.
Crown prosecutor Meaghan Cunningham said the Crown would have sought a “significant” period of jail time for Allen, if not for his physical condition. The court must denounce his conduct in the strongest terms possible, she said.
“It is a violation of trust not only to the complainants, the victims, but also the community that looked up and held in high regard Father Allen,” said Cunningham.
Allen said nothing as he was wheeled out of the courthouse and helped into a waiting car, shaking his head slightly when asked if he had anything to say.
Allen offered the same silent treatment to police when he was arrested last July, never asking the detective who his accusers were or what they alleged. At no point did Allen appear surprised or shocked by the allegations, according to police.
Following his arrest, another former student came forward, alleging that Allen had invited him and his friend to his room for a wrestling match and offered to take the boys for burgers. The man declined because he thought the priest’s behaviour was inappropriate.
Allen is one of two priests from St. Pius X charged with sex offences; a preliminary hearing for a second priest, Kenneth O’Keefe, is set for later this year.
Contact: aseymour@ottawacitizen.com
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