Former St. Marys Principal Father Marshall Faces More Legal Action

By Mike Verdone
Sault Star
March 29, 2012

http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3519727

Legal action against Father William Hodgson (Hod) Marshall — a former St. Mary's College principal in Sault Ste. Marie from 1980-85 — began 10 years ago when a 46-year-old man filed suit in a Sudbury courtroom.

Nineteen people have come forward in Sudbury, Windsor, Toronto and Saskatoon since then, and Marshall has pleaded guilty to 17 charges of indecent assault.

He was sentenced in June 2011 to two years in prison, which he is serving in Kingston Penitentiary.

No victims are known to have come forward in the Sault.

A lawyer represent victims said in Sudbury on Wednesday, some of those who were abused are seeking justice from authorities they allege knew about the abuse at the time, but did nothing to stop it.

Rob Talach, of Ledroit Beckett Litigation Lawyers in London, said four civil lawsuits have been launched against Marshall, the Basilian order to which he belongs and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie.

The suits also name the Sudbury Catholic District School Board and Bishop Ronald Peter Fabbro. The lawsuits seek damages of more than a $1 million each.

Two men Marshall admitted to indecently assaulting spoke to reporters Wednesday during the press conference in Sudbury.

Talach said the plantiffs are looking to put together the pieces of the puzzle surrounding Father Marshall. He said "the totality" of what happened at the Catholic boy's school in Sudbury has never been revealed.

Marshall taught at Sudbury's St. Charles College from 1961 to 1970, which was an all boys school at the time. Talach said at least two parents complained about abuse to the school and Basilian officials.

At least 13 civil lawsuits have been filed against Marshall.

The first suit was tabled in 2002 when Tadeusz (Ted) Holland, 46, was awarded more than $10,000 in damages related to alleged sexual assaults he suffered in Sudbury at the hands of Marshall in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Holland filed the claim against the Sudbury Catholic District School Board and Marshall.

Neither Marshall or the board filed a defence in the suit. That led deputy judge Anna Marcuccio to rule in favour of Holland.

In the fall of 2010 another man accused Marshall of sexaully abusing him when he was a student at St. Charles.

Police also revealed at the time that Marshall had been charged with six counts of gross indecency and six counts of indecent assault related to incidents involving six former students between January 1960 and December 1970 in Sudbury.

And news reports at the time also stated Marshall, then 88, faced similar charges in Windsor and Toronto.

The scandal expanded to include 16 complainants from three Ontario cities spanning a period from the early 1950s to the 1980s. A Toronto report accused Marshall of abusing 12 other minors while assigned to schools in Windsor and Sudbury.

Last month more sex charges were levelled against Marshall when two Saskatoon women came forward.

Two counts of indecent assault were filed after the women alleged they were assaulted by Marshall in 1959 and 1960 at a Saskatoon high school they attended — when they were 14 — where the priest was a teacher.

It was also reported last month that two southern Ontario men, Jerome Edward Boyle and Patrick David Lawrence McMahon, each launched $3- million lawsuits.

Boyle is suing Marshall, the Basilian Fathers of Toronto, the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of the Diocese of London and Bishop Ronald Peter Fabbro over the abuse.

McMahon is suing Marshall, the Basilian Fathers of Toronto and Fabbro.

With Files from The Sudbury Star