Witness admits he lied for revenge

Cornwall Standard Freeholder 

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 - 08:00 

Terri Saunders

Local News - A witness at the Cornwall Public Inquiry admitted Tuesday that as an act of revenge he lied about having observed prominent area men participating in sexual rituals.

Ron Leroux told the commission he didn't actually see the men engaged in any rituals, despite the fact several statements signed by him in the past included comments about having seen the acts performed first hand.

"I was angry for being molested," Leroux said. "I wanted to get back at them somehow."

A number of documents entered as exhibits at the inquiry Tuesday contain statements attributed to Leroux in which he recalls having observed a "clan" of pedophiles engaged in ritualistic acts involving young boys at a cottage on Cameron's Point in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

Several of the statements were taken by former city cop Perry Dunlop in the 1990s.

"(In one statement) you say the image is pretty vivid in your mind, that you can remember that like it was yesterday," said Peter Engelmann, lead commission counsel.

"That's a lie or something," said Leroux.

"You didn't see a ritual?" asked Engelmann.

"No," said Leroux. "That's not something I saw. It was something that was told to me by a man around my age who was working at a city clothing store. I told the story to Dunlop and he put it in there." Leroux admitted he signed the statements without reading them to ensure the contents were accurate.

"Why would you do that?" asked Engelmann.

"I don't know," said Leroux. "I just wanted to get this over with. I didn't want to have anything to do with that man (Dunlop)."

Leroux also told the commission many of the things attributed to him in statements taken by Dunlop just weren't true.

In one statement, Leroux apparently tells Dunlop he was sexually assaulted by three members of the clergy - Rev. Bernard Cameron, Rev. Donald McDougald and former Bishop Eugene LaRocque. The allegations were investigated by police and no charges were ever laid against any of the three men in relation to Leroux's allegations.

On Tuesday, Leroux said when he told his father about alleged assaults which occurred at the hands of Cameron and McDougald in a school confessional, his father immediately went to see church officials and a police officer about what his son had told him.

But in statements given to Dunlop, Leroux apparently says he told both his parents about the alleged abuse and wasn't believed.

"I told my parents . . . and . . . my father said they were men of the cloth; they wouldn't do that," Leroux is alleged to have told Dunlop.

During testimony, Leroux said he never disclosed the abuse in the way it's depicted in the Dunlop statement.

"That's not true," he said. "I would never have talked to my mother about that."

When asked why the Dunlop statements read the way they do, Leroux had just one explanation.

"I did anything (Dunlop) told me to do," said Leroux. "There are discrepancies in a lot of (these statements). If I said anything about it, he (Dunlop) would say, 'Don't worry about it.'

"I had been through a lot. I was muddled up. This guy was hounding me and then he sics a lawyer on me. You do what you're told."

Engelmann continually pointed out the fact many of the things Leroux said in the past differ from what he said on the witness stand Tuesday.

"That's why I'm here," said Leroux, who also claimed he was constantly coerced into making statements. "I want the truth out there. I've had enough of it."

The inquiry continues today with more of Leroux's testimony.