Accused Priest to Take the Stand

By Jeff Bell
Times Colonist
December 15, 2012

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/accused-priest-to-take-the-stand-1.28497

Father Phil Jacobs is scheduled to take the stand next week as his trial continues on charges of sexual assault, sexual interference with a person under 14 and sexual touching.

The charges stem from incidents involving three youths that allegedly occurred between September 1996 and June 2001. The trial began Monday in B.C. Supreme Court.

Defence lawyer Chris Considine said Jacobs and at least two other people are likely to testify for the defence from Monday to Wednesday.

Jacobs, 63, was parish priest at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church from 1997 to 2002, a post he left when it became known that he had been dismissed from a Columbus, Ohio, church a number of years before over allegations of inappropriate conduct with teenage boys. No criminal charges or civil suits resulted.

Jacobs was appointed to the parish of St. Rose of Lima in Sooke in 1995, a position deemed suitable because St. Rose did not have a school with young children, according to admissions read into the court record. The admissions said the move was meant “to occupy Philip Jacobs’ time with his studies and limit his access to children.”

After Jacobs left St. Joseph’s, Saanich police began an investigation, but no charges were laid. Police stepped in again after a complaint was made in 2009, leading to Jacobs’ arrest in 2010.