The ChronicleHerald.ca (Halifax)

Thu. Oct 15 - 4:46 AM

By PATRICIA BROOKS ARENBURG Staff Reporter

Nova Scotia RCMP have searched a home, an apartment and an office used by a Catholic bishop facing child pornography charges in Ontario.

"Early this morning, members of our provincial Internet child exploitation unit executed a search warrant at the former residence of . . . Bishop Raymond Lahey in Sydney," Sgt. Brigdit Leger, an RCMP spokeswoman, said Wednesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, members from the unit and RCMP street crime officers also "executed two search warrants in Antigonish — one at the residence and one at the office of" Bishop Lahey, she said.

The bishop is facing child pornography charges laid after Canada Border Services agents seized his laptop computer at Ottawa International Airport on Sept. 15. He had retired as bishop of the Antigonish diocese just days before the news of the charges broke.

Sgt. Leger didn’t identify the location of Wednesday’s search in Sydney, but a source said officers were at 29 Xavier Dr., inside Apt. 7, looking for images and electronics.

A neighbour described it as a home for retired priests and said she hadn’t seen police there Wednesday. It wasn’t known what, if anything, officers had seized in Sydney.

Officers confiscated items during the Antigonish searches.

"Two computers and some external media have been seized from Antigonish," Sgt. Leger said. "Specifically what and specifically from which location, I wouldn’t be able to disclose, but I can confirm material has been seized."

The Atlantic technological crime unit will examine the items that have been seized in the searches before police decide whether to lay charges against the cleric.

The Nova Scotia RCMP searches and investigation stem from the Ottawa investigation but are separate from it, Sgt. Leger said.

"We want to ensure that we’re doing a thorough and complete job" in this province, she said.

According to provincial property records, the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of Antigonish owns the Sydney building. The group also owns the bishop’s former residence at 23 Silverwood Dr. in Antigonish and his former office at 168 Hawthorne St. in Antigonish.

A man who was visiting family in the Silverwood Drive area said he saw three vehicles but no marked police cars parked outside the former bishop’s home for most of the day Tuesday.

"Nobody was aware at all," the man said of the search.

"We assumed that they were moving another one of them in," he said. "We’re pretty concerned about that — who’s going to move in next? It’s not a good situation."

Bishop Lahey is on bail and living at a home for priests in Ottawa. He has surrendered his passport to authorities and is subject to several conditions pending his next court appearance in that city on Nov. 4.

( pbrooks@herald.ca)