Kokesch Spending Holidays behind Bars

By Karen Seidman
Montreal Gazette
December 24, 2012

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Kokesch+spending+holidays+behind+bars/7741280/story.html

William Kokesch, a 65-year-old a assigned deacon to St. Edmund of Canterbury Parish in Beaconsfield, was formally charged with possession and production of child pornography on Saturday.

Church deacon William Kokesch will spend Christmas behind bars after his bail hearing was postponed until Thursday during an appearance in court Monday morning.

Kokesch, 65, is facing pornography charges after he was arrested on Friday and charged with distribution and production of child pornography.

A prominent deacon of St. Edmund of Canterbury Parish in Beaconsfield, police made the arrest after searching his Pointe Claire home and the church.

The Archdiocese of Montreal announced on Saturday it immediately removed Kokesch from all ministry and pastoral activity.

“Having just learned of the charges against Mr. Kokesch, the diocese is profoundly upset,” it said in a statement. “Child pornography is an affront to human dignity, and our first concern rests with those who are its victims.”

Police seized more than 2,000 computer files as well as messages left on chat-room sites on the Internet.

Kokesch, a Vancouver native who is married and the father of five adult children, was formally charged on Saturday via a video conference, but did not enter a plea at his arraignment.

Kokesch, who was ordained as a “permanent deacon” in the diocese of Montreal, served as the communications director for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in Ottawa. Kokesch had also worked as a reporter for The Gazette and in radio and TV news in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and was often sought after by the news media for his insights into the sex scandals engulfing the Catholic Church.

kseidman@montrealgazette.com