Priest Given Sooke Post to Avoid Kids, Court Hears

By Louise Dickson
Vancouver Sun
December 11, 2012

www.vancouversun.com/news/Priest+given+Sooke+post+avoid+kids+court+hears/7679136/story.html

A Catholic priest charged with four counts of sexual offences against three former altar boys at St. Joseph the Worker’s parish in Saanich was first appointed to the parish of St. Rose of Lima in Sooke because it would limit his access to children.

That admission was heard Monday at Father Phil Jacobs’s judge-alone trial in B.C. Supreme Court. Jacobs, 63, who was parish priest at St. Joseph’s from 1997 to 2002, is charged with sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference with a person under 14 and sexual touching. The incidents are alleged to have occurred between September 1996 and June 30, 2001.

Jacobs, a tall man with receding grey hair and a trim beard, sat in the prisoner’s box as prosecutor Clare Jennings read the admissions into the court record.

The admissions show allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Jacobs when he was ministering in the Catholic Diocese of Columbus, Ohio. No criminal charges were laid or civil suits filed as a result of the Ohio allegations.