Priest Found Not Guilty in Sexual Assaults Case

By Derek Dunn
Inside Ottawa Valley
December 11, 2014

http://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/5202328-priest-found-not-guilty-in-sexual-assaults-case/

A Catholic priest well-known in the Arnprior area was found not guilty in Pembroke court on Dec. 3 on two sexual assault charges.

Father Dan Miller, who was last year found guilty of molesting five boys in Renfrew

County about 40 years ago, was charged with indecent assault and gross indecency. The alleged assaults took place in the Deep River area in the 1970s.

He had served nine months in the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre last year after pleading guilty to the first set of charges, but maintained his innocence in the latest case.

According to Arnpriortoday.ca, Justice Martin said the victim's testimony was credible but not reliable.

It took 40 years to remember the incidents, which were prompted by reading an article describing Miller's first trial. Yet the victim could easily remember an uncle sexually assaulting them at about the same time in question.

The victim also returned to the site of the alleged incident, Camp Mackey, in later years without recalling the incident.

A not guilty verdict must be found in cases where reliability of key evidence is in doubt.

Miller was a long-time priest at Saint John Chrysostom in Arnprior and served in several other churches in the county.

Four pedophile priests from the Catholic Dioceses of Pembroke have been convicted in recent years.