Monday, August 13, 2007 - 08:00

Local News - Cornwall

By Terri Saunders

A man who “named names” at the Cornwall Public Inquiry earlier this summer and admitted he lied to get revenge on his alleged sexual abusers will be back in the hot seat today.

Just before the commission and a team of lawyers packed things up and headed for a six-week vacation at the end of June, a single witness managed in three days to blow the lid off years of rumours, gossip and innuendo related to historical child sexual abuse. By claiming many of the stories he’s told in the past about meetings between high-profile area men and bizarre sexual rituals were fraught with inaccuracies and mistruths, Ron Leroux single-handedly tore down one of the pillars upon which conspiracy theorists have stood for years — the existence of a pedophile ring in Cornwall.

Since the inquiry began hearing evidence from victims and alleged victims of child sexual and physical abuse in October 2006, dozens of men and women took the witness stand and recounted their experiences while they were altar boys, students or Crown wards and talked about the abuse they allegedly suffered at the hands of priests, teachers and foster parents.

For the most part, the alleged abusers were not believed to have known each other or worked in any concerted effort to systematically and collectively abuse children. Certainly the inquiry heard stories about a single teacher having abused more than one student and observers aren’t likely to ever forget the testimony of three siblings abused by a Newington bus driver while they were young teenagers.

But over the course of the past several years, a group of area residents has clung to the theory a group of prominent men got together and not only sexually abused dozens of children but conspired to protect one another in the face of any public or professional scrutiny.

For many people, it was Leroux’s story which served as the basis for the clan theory. In an affidavit sworn in November 1996, Leroux provides specific details about who and what he saw at a number of locations over a period of many years.

The affidavit was sworn before former city cop Perry Dunlop and his lawyer, Charles Bourgeois. More than 10 years later, as he sat on the witness stand at the inquiry, Leroux admitted many of the statements contained in his affidavit were false and seemed at times to suggest Dunlop and Bourgeois added the statements into the document without his knowledge.

“I never read anything they put down,” said Leroux. “I never took the time to read it. I was on a hell of a merry-go-round for . . . a few years with them. Anything could have been written in there, I wouldn’t even say anything about it.”

Eventually, Leroux admitted some of the inaccuracies in the affidavit were entirely his fault.

“Did you tell either Mr. Dunlop or Mr. Bourgeois that you never actually saw (a) ritual incident?” asked Peter Engelmann, lead commission counsel.

“I might have told them I saw it,” said Leroux.

“So you are telling us now that you did not come clean with them?” asked Engelmann.

“No,” said Leroux.

The fact Leroux appears to have backtracked on some of the statements he’s made in the past will likely make for some interesting testimony during the inquiry’s first week back in session. He’s the only witness scheduled to testify and when the hearings adjourned in late June, lawyers for a number of parties were lining up to begin their cross-examination of his evidence.

Commission officials have suggested they intend to complete witness evidence by the end of the summer or very early fall and then immediately begin to delve into the roles played by a series of public institutions in relation to decades of allegations of abuse.

Hearings resume 2 p.m. today at The Weave Shed on Cotton Mill Street.

Cornwall Public Inquiry Back In Business

Cornwall News AM 1220