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	SNAP Responds to Sentencing for Raymond Lahey SNAP August 4, 2011 http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2011_statements/080411_snap_responds_to_sentencing_for_raymond_lahey.htm Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director of SNAP (314.503.0003, snapdorris@gmail.com) We applaud the Canadian authorities for not only apprehending Raymond Lahey as he attempted to import child pornography, but also for pursuing the criminal charges against this disgraced bishop. We urge the magistrate presiding over this sentencing hearing to give Lahey a stiff sentence and send a message to pedophile clerics in Canada and abroad that child abuse will not be tolerated. Kids are safest when child predators are jailed, so we sincerely hope that Lahey is put behind bars, and we urge anyone who was a member of the Antigonish diocese who saw, suspected, or suffered these crimes to come forward and tell their story to civil – not church – authorities. Please remember that there is no greater weapon for a pedophile than silence. (SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 22 years and have more than 10,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org) Contact: David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com), Barbara Dorris(314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com) ***** Disgraced ex-bishop Lahey faces sentencing hearing OTTAWA — A sentencing hearing is set to start Thursday for disgraced former Roman Catholic bishop Raymond Lahey, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to possessing child pornography. Lahey, 71, was bishop of Antigonish, N.S., when he was caught with child pornography on his laptop computer while passing through the Ottawa airport in summer 2009 after a trip abroad. Lahey voluntarily went to jail after pleading guilty in May to possessing the pornography for the purpose of importation. He faces a one-year mandatory minimum sentence. His hearing was to begin in an Ottawa courtroom Thursday, and is expected to continue, after a break, in December.
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