Key witness at Cornwall inquiry could be charged with contempt

Last Updated: Monday, September 17, 2007 | 3:51 PM ET

Two key witnesses have refused to testify at a public inquiry into a sexual abuse scandal in eastern Ontario despite the threat of being charged with contempt of court.

Former Cornwall police officer Perry Dunlop, who blew the whistle on the scandal in the 1990s, and his wife Helen both refused to testify Monday after being forced to appear at the hearings by a subpoena.

She told reporters that the couple would not be back Tuesday despite the threat of being charged.

“I would gladly face contempt of court rather than 14 years of this judicial terrorism that we have lived under.

“We have been booted around, kicked around, treated as a bad guy.”The inquiry, which opened in February 2006, has been examining the response of authorities to complaints that prominent members of the eastern Ontario community sexually abused dozens of children over decades starting in the 1950s.

At the trials of some of the accused, Helen Dunlop said, “Perry was vilified, called every name except the Antichrist,”

She also questioned why none of the accused or those who helped cover up the sexual abuse allegations were ever charged with obstruction of justice, except for one man who is now dead.

She added that in the meantime, her whole family has suffered and she almost broke down when she described how their daughter needed therapy as a result of terror that caused her to sleep with a knife under her bed and cry when she saw someone coming down the roadway.

Perry Dunlop said the hardest part of the process was his conversation with his daughters before he left his home in B.C. for the inquiry.

“Being hugged by your daughters and asked if you’re going to go to jail for something you did so right — it’s a feeling I hope no one else has to go through,” he said.

Appearance draws standing ovation

Dunlop received a standing ovation Monday when he briefly took the stand.Commissioner Normand Glaude adjourned the proceedings after people who packed the hearing room refused to sit back down.

When the hearing resumed, Dunlop told the commission and its audience that he was coerced into coming to Cornwall to testify, has no faith in the Ontario justice system and believes the coverup of the alleged sexual abuse continues.

Glaude adjourned the hearing again after Dunlop refused to say more. The hearing resumed shortly, so Glaude and the commission's lead counsel, Peter Engelmann, could inform Dunlop and his wife that they may be charged with contempt of court if they continue to refuse.

Dunlop disobeyed his superiors in order to uncover the truth about allegations that prominent members of the community in Cornwall had sexually abused dozens of children in eastern Ontario.

He eventually moved to British Columbia after he was ostracized by other officers and some members of the community, who called him a troublemaker.

The inquiry, headed by commissioner, opened in February 2006. Its mandate is to examine the response of authorities to complaints that surfaced in the 1990s about sexual abuse that took place in Cornwall over decades, starting in the 1950s.

Dunlop turned down a number of invitations to appear at the inquiry, but eventually the commission used the court system to issue a subpoena to both Dunlop and his wife.Before the appearance, Engelmann, lead counsel for the inquiry, said Dunlop's testimony would be invaluable."

He interviewed many victims and alleged victims of child sexual abuse and he had many, many interactions with the public institutions that we're examining here," he said.

Church paid victim $32,000 to stay quiet

Dunlop began his key role in the Cornwall investigation after walking in on two police sergeants in September 1993 while they were discussing the Catholic Church's agreement to pay a former altar boy $32,000.

In exchange, the victim was dropping his complaint to police about the abuse.Dunlop handed the original complaint to the Children's Aid Society, which ended up pursuing the case anyway.He was disciplined for speaking out, but his continued work eventually led to four police investigations and charges being laid against 15 people.

At least five of those were convicted on various charges.