CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press
By: Aldo Santin
A priest of the Orthodox Church in America told court this morning he kept quiet about allegations another priest had abused two young boys for more than 20 years.
Father Steven Kostoff said the mother of the alleged victims of sexual assault by Seraphim Storheim told him in 1987 that Storheim had wronged her boys two years earlier but he did nothing about her concerns.
“I was quite stunned, quite dumbfounded,” by the allegations, Kostoff said, but added that he decided to stay quiet about the matter.
Storheim is charged with two counts of sexual assault involving two 11-year-old brothers in his home in Winnipeg during the summer of 1985. He pleaded not guilty to the charges when the trial began Monday.
Storheim was the parish priest at Holy Trinity Sobor Orthodox church on Manitoba Avenue at the time. Storheim had befriended the boys’ family while he served at another parish in another community and the boys visited him separately that summer.
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