By Andrew Seymour
Vancouver Sun
December 20, 2011
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Bishop+child+porn+collection+included+Catholic+imagery/5888202/story.html
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| Disgraced Catholic bishop Raymond Lahey is interested in sado-masochistic sex and addicted to Internet pornography but isn't a pedophile, a forensic psychiatrist testified Monday. |
Disgraced Catholic bishop Raymond Lahey apologized in court Tuesday for possessing child pornography and urged others who may have similar addictions to online pornography to seek help.
"I have always believed that people should take full responsibility for their actions, and I certainly want to take full responsibility for my own," Lahey told Ontario Court Justice Kent Kirkland.
"I know I've done wrong, not only something illegal, but something that goes against the moral principles I believe in," he continued.
"During the past 26 months, I've had a chance to reflect on what I have done. I can say I have come to recognize that I became addicted to Internet pornography on a very indiscriminate basis. This was an addiction powerful enough that despite my own distaste for it and my own internal convulsions I could not break it."
Lahey said he believes he wanted to be found out but his addiction, coupled with his high-ranking position in the church, kept him from seeking the help he needed. Lahey said he believes he has tried to deal with it now.
He also wanted to warn others to seek help.
"I will take this opportunity to speak out to others who may find themselves in a similar position to my own and urge them to look at what they are doing, cease it and to seize the help that they need," he said.
"Not just because this is something illegal, but because ultimately it is unhealthy, because it destroys relationships, and above all, where it involves pictures and stories of children, because it causes genuine harm to them."
Lahey pleaded guilty in May to possession of child pornography for the purpose of importation. He was nabbed with the illicit materials at the Ottawa airport in September 2009 as he returned to Canada from abroad.
Lahey has spent more than seven months in jail after voluntarily surrendering himself into custody following his plea.
He is facing a one-year mandatory minimum sentence.
Kirkland ruled Tuesday that he will receive two-for-one credit for his time already spent in jail, meaning he could be released with time served on Jan. 4, when Kirkland is expected to pass sentence.
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