SQLFusion - Cornwall inquiry urged to debunk rumours of pedophile ring

Cornwall inquiry urged to debunk rumours of pedophile ring

CBC Radio

Last Updated: Thursday, February 26, 2009 | 6:54 PM ET

The Canadian Press

Murky allegations that a pedophile clan operated with impunity in eastern Ontario were cast as fabrications spread by a misguided police officer and embraced by a panic-stricken community during four days of final submissions at the Cornwall inquiry.

Public agencies ill-equipped to handle sex abuse allegations, the equation of homosexuality with pedophilia and the presumption of guilt of accused abusers were all cited as factors in how rumours of the sex ring took root.

While the mandate of the inquiry, which has cost $40 million to date, was to examine the institutional response to decades-old allegations of abuse, the majority of the submissions, which began Monday, focused on discrediting the clan theory.

Many suggested the blame for the sensational story, which provincial police found no evidence of in an earlier probe, could be placed on former Cornwall police officer Perry Dunlop.

On Thursday, Commissioner G. Normand Glaude was urged to conclude in his report, due July 31, that the allegations were a paranoid myth.

'The story is false'

Vulnerable witnesses were easily manipulated by Dunlop into concocting an explosive tale of ritual sexual abuse. And supporters of Dunlop, who was seen as a local hero for his crusade against pedophiles, became a group of "media-savvy conspiracy theorists" who "exacted maximum damage on those targeted," the inquiry heard.

"It is important for you to set out exactly how these allegations were constructed and by whom," Cornwall Police Service lawyer John Callaghan told Glaude. "It's important, because the conspiracy theorists will never die. Long after you leave town, the bloggers, the gossip hounds, will continue to gather behind some grassy knoll in Cornwall and tell of a conspiracy."

Closing submissions from the diocese and Cornwall police took the position that two witnesses, one known as C8, the other a man named Ron Leroux, fabricated stories of a pedophile ring.

"It was [then] propagated by the reckless incompetence and lack of judgment of Perry Dunlop, who could not discern fact from fiction," Sherriff-Scott told the inquiry.

Allegations of abuse

It began in 1992, Sherriff-Scott said, when a 35-year-old former altar boy alleged he had been sexually abused by a priest and a probation officer. The man reached a settlement with the diocese for $32,000 and didn't pursue charges against either man.

Dunlop leaked the allegations to the local Children's Aid Society, and the information eventually appeared in the media. The man launched a complaint against Dunlop.

"Mr. Dunlop became convinced that he was being scapegoated, bullied, harassed and isolated," which caused him to mistrust all public institutions, Sherriff-Scott said. "In the ensuing storm, he simply fell apart."

By early 1994, Dunlop was on sick leave, suffering from mental health challenges and was on multiple medications to deal with conditions such as depression, the inquiry has heard.

Still, he pursued his own investigation, believing a pedophile ring was being operated by prominent locals and being covered up by even more high-profile officials, Sherriff-Scott said.

It was in this environment that Dunlop interviewed C8, who led him to Leroux.

Leroux told Dunlop he witnessed a clan of pedophiles who wore robes, burned candles and sexually abused young boys during weekend meetings in the 1950s and early 1960s.

In June 2007, Leroux told the inquiry that he fabricated the tale.

"Mr. Dunlop, who had been radicalized by his experiences and suffering from the problems he was having, was too lacking in judgment to do anything but snap at this story," Sherriff-Scott said.

Dunlop's former police force was less generous in their submissions, making no mention of Dunlop's mental distress.

Instead, they painted a picture of a man who, along with his lawyer, allegedly took the lead in actively changing Leroux's statements and adding names to a list of alleged pedophiles to fulfil personal vendettas.

1 convicted

In 1997, provincial police launched an investigation and laid 114 charges against 15 people but found no evidence of a pedophile ring.

Of the men charged, only a bus driver was convicted. Four died before their cases came to trial, four were acquitted, four had the charges against them withdrawn and two had the charges against them stayed because of delays.

Two community groups told the inquiry this week that "inept" public institutions created a void that sent alleged abuse victims flocking to Dunlop, who became the "alternate constabulary."

Dunlop, who has since moved to British Columbia and no longer works in law enforcement, refused to testify at the inquiry and was jailed for seven months on civil and criminal contempt convictions.

The group Citizens for Community Renewal also suggested belief in a pedophile clan was able to gain a foothold due in part to rampant homophobia in the community.

The lawyer for the estate of an accused child sexual abuser who committed suicide said public hysteria flourished because of the lack of a presumption of innocence for people accused of such crimes.

Story comments (8)

Jim Poushinsky wrote:Posted 2009/02/27at 11:03 PM ET

"In 1997, provincial police launched an investigation and laid 114 charges against 15 people".

Why aren't the lawyers going after these OPP investigators? Why are they only attacking the one police officer on the Cornwall Force who had the courage and integrity to initiate the investigation that led to many victims of sexual abuse coming forward so that the OPP had grounds to lay 114 charges against 15 people?

I have a lot of empathy for Perry Dunlop. I too left Cornwall over a cover-up by the powers-that-be. A teenage girl who had been denied treatment for mental problems by the hospital where I worked, died in suspicious circumstances. When I tried to talk about this I was told by the hospital administration that if I attempted to tell the investigating coroner, Fire Marshall, or police anything that I knew about this child, I would be sued for everything I owned, fired from my job, and the hospital would see to it I was blacklisted and never worked in a hospital again. When I appealed to the Ontario Ministry of Health, instead of an investigation into what was happening at the hospital, I got a letter back advising me to get a lawyer to protect myself.

The stress was incredible, and I decided the health of my familty was more important than continuing a hopeless struggle against the Health Care System for neglecting to help a troubled child who died in Cornwall. I felt I had no choice but to resign, and after leaving Cornwall I did contact the OPP and told a senior investigator what I knew about the girl's case.

So I can understand Perry Dunlop refusing to testify at this Inquiry. He chose to go to jail rather than continue exposing his family to abuse and lawsuits from the power elite scapegoating him in Cornwall. Justice denied!

PITYME wrote:Posted 2009/02/27 at 5:08 PM ET

Just because they can't prove it, doesn't mean it never happened....

alex746 wrote:Posted 2009/02/27 at 3:04 PM ET

z___s____ ,

Pedophilia doesn't need to be sensationalized. Media or no, this story would be getting a lot of attention because this is the kind of thing that women gossip about at the grocerie store and men gossip about when they brink their sons to hockey games (that's right, men gossip too). My point is that this kind of witch hunt / conspiracy happens at a community level. Media need not get involved.

zekekit wrote:Posted 2009/02/27 at 11:49 AM ET

A similar pedophile ring operated in Prescott but they didn't shoot the messenger as in this case.

z___s____ wrote:Posted 2009/02/27 at 10:48 AM ET

Grant Dickin

the great unwashed masses are relatively harmless until there's some sensationalist fear mongering on the part of the media.

dingbat wrote:Posted 2009/02/27 at 8:45 AM ET

"There is no doubt that this commission was formed largely in response to the persistence of this story," David Sherriff-Scott, lawyer for the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, submitted to the inquiry. "The commission, therefore, should unequivocally and unreservedly put the story to rest and declare that, after more than three years of probing, the story is false."

Let us not forget the article is almost exclusivley quoting the Lawyer for the Diocese, it is their position that Dunlop was to blame....This artice does not cover the commissions findings nor is the opinion of Commissioner Glaude, it is if you like the closing statement of the defence - not the finding

ScottyMcScott wrote:Posted 2009/02/27 at 8:42 AM ET

lowest common denominator...

Grant Dickin wrote:Posted 2009/02/26 at 11:46 PM ET

This speaks volumes about the gullibility and stupidity of the general public, and how the weakest link in the justice system is the average member of the public.