Disgraced Catholic Bishop's Sentencing Enters 2nd Day, CBC News, December 20, 2011

Disgraced Catholic Bishop's Sentencing Enters 2nd Day

CBC News
December 20, 2011

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/12/20/nl-lahey-sentencing-1220.html

Disgraced Roman Catholic bishop Raymond Lahey pleaded guilty earlier this year to possessing child pornography. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Raymond Lahey's court hearing enters its second day in Ottawa Tuesday with the Crown giving input into what sentence the disgraced Roman Catholic bishop should get for possessing child pornography.

Lahey, 71, former head of the diocese of Antigonish, N.S., pleaded guilty earlier this year to possessing child pornography for the purposes of importation to Canada.

Lahey's lawyers asked for the one-year minimum sentence, plus one-year probation. They are also asking for a 2-for-1 credit for time served.

Lahey has been in jail since pleading guilty in May.

The Truth in Sentencing Act came into effect in 2010, ending the 2-for-1 credit on jail sentences, but Lahey's charges predate that change, his lawyers argued.

Psychiatrist says bishop not a pedophile

The sentencing hearing heard Monday from Dr. John Bradford, the psychiatrist who assessed Lahey for both the Crown and the defence. Bradford said Lahey is not a pedophile and presents virtually no risk to commit a hands-on sexual offence.

Bradford said Lahey has a homosexual interest in adolescent males — aged 14 to 17 — and young men, as well as sadomasochistic interests. But, he said, a pedophile is someone who is attracted to children under age 13 for more than six months.

Lahey, originally from Newfoundland and Labrador, was a bishop in the western Newfoundland diocese of St. George's between 1986 and 2003, and in Antigonish, N.S., until 2009.

In September 2009, police arrested Lahey at the Ottawa airport and found hundreds of child pornography images on his personal computer. Lahey's sentencing hearing began Aug. 4, when his defence lawyers argued the images found on Lahey's computer were less graphic than pornography collections found by police investigators in other cases.