By Louise Dickson
Montreal Gazette
November 7, 2011
www.montrealgazette.com/news/Priest+accused+crimes+appears+before+preliminary+inquiry/5671590/story.html
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| Father Philip Jacobs is charged with one count of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference and one count of sexual exploitation. Photo by Handout, Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria |
VICTORIA — A preliminary inquiry began Monday for an American Catholic priest accused of sexual offences in B.C.
Father Philip Jacobs was arrested by Canada Border Services Agency officials in August 2010. He is charged with four sex offences involving three Victoria-area children under the age of 14.
He was released on a $25,000 surety.
Jacobs is charged with one count of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference and one count of sexual exploitation. The offences occurred between Sept. 1, 1996, and June 30, 2001, according to court documents. During that time, Jacobs was a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria, police said.
The identities of the victims are protected by court order and police have not released their ages or sexes. Evidence at the preliminary inquiry is under a publication ban.
Jacobs served as parish priest at St. Joseph the Worker Church in the Victoria suburb of Saanich, B.C., from 1998 to 2002. Prior to that, he spent two years serving the St. Rose of Lima congregation in nearby Sooke, B.C. Jacobs resigned from his position at St. Joseph in April 2002 after information was made public that he had been dismissed from a church in Columbus, Ohio, in the mid-1990s amid allegations of misconduct.
Saanich police began investigating Jacobs in 2002, but there was insufficient evidence at that time to proceed with a charge, spokesman Const. Dean Jantzen said.
However, in 2009, while Jacobs was living abroad, Saanich police received complaints that led to an investigation into his conduct as a priest at St. Joseph's, Jantzen said. The investigation resulted in charges being approved on July 9, 2010, and the Canada-wide warrant that led to Jacobs' arrest.
Contact: ldickson@timescolonist.com
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