Sentencing Delayed in Ex-Priest's Sex Abuse Case

By Brian Medel Yarmouth Bureau
The Chronicle-Herald
August 20, 2012

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/128203-sentencing-delayed-in-ex-priest-s-sex-abuse-case

YARMOUTH — An 83-year-old former Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused boys when he was younger used a doctor's note to say he could not travel to Yarmouth on Friday to be sentenced.

Albert LeBlanc, now married and living in Bouctouche, N.B., pleaded guilty in May to six counts of indecent assault. His guilty plea came at the beginning of what was expected to have been a weeklong trial in Yarmouth.

LeBlanc faced 50 counts but pleaded guilty to six charges, each of which related to a different male victim.

In Yarmouth provincial court Friday, Judge Jim Burrill said the court received a note from LeBlanc's doctor concerning his medical condition.

"The letter was not really specific," said Burrill. "It simply indicated that Mr. LeBlanc was unable to travel due to medical reasons."

The judge also noted that the condition of LeBlanc's wife is also precarious.

The case was handled by conference call, with defence lawyer Gilles Lemieux on speakerphone from Saint-Antoine N.B.

"I saw for myself, and I'm quite sure that the condition that he's in right now would preclude anybody from travelling," Lemieux said of his client.

The defence then sought an adjournment based on the medical condition of the convicted former priest.

LeBlanc has been ordered to have no contact with children under 16, with no exceptions.

Crown attorney Alonzo Wright made it clear, also on speakerphone, that he opposed the adjournment.

Despite the Crown's objection, the court did grant the adjournment and sentencing is now set for Nov. 23 in Yarmouth.

A rather frail-looking LeBlanc appeared in a Yarmouth courtroom on May 14, where he pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault dating back to Jan. 1, 1970, and covering periods up to Dec. 31, 1985.

The original 50 counts all alleged that LeBlanc sexually abused boys during his days in Yarmouth County, where he worked first as a priest and later, after he left the priesthood in 1975, as a probation officer.

Lawyers spent much of the day conferring on May 14 and when the case was finally ready to proceed at 2 p.m., Lemieux informed the court there would be a change of plea.

The remaining 44 charges were placed in abeyance until sentencing.

Yarmouth RCMP said earlier that a complaint against LeBlanc was filed with them in April 2010.

After more than eight months of investigation, officers went to Bouctouche and arrested LeBlanc in January 2011.

LeBlanc, who married after leaving the priesthood, originally faced 40 counts of gross indecency and indecent assault spanning 15 years, beginning in 1970.

But in March 2011 it was revealed LeBlanc would face 10 more charges, also dating back to the 1970s.

The alleged victims in the first set of 40 charges were between ages seven and 11, an RCMP source said at the time.

Last year, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth said LeBlanc was ordained in New Brunswick in 1955 and served as a priest in Digby and Yarmouth County.

Meanwhile, three men have accused LeBlanc of abuse and are seeking more than $5 million in damages in a civil action, said court documents filed in February.

A fourth plaintiff has also started a civil action against LeBlanc, a lawyer for a law firm representing some of the former priest's victims said earlier this year.

Contact: bmedel@herald.ca